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Stripped

King’s Head Theatre

Reviewed – 2nd September 2019

★★★★

“a fresh perspective on a difficult issue, whilst still managing to be a witty and engrossing piece of theatre”

A surprising and thought-provoking piece of drama, ‘Stripped’ takes a tantalising premise and turns expectations on their head. What starts as a bouncy two-hander slowly transforms into a nuanced and devastating account of the how two people can view one night so differently.

Ollie (Charles Reston) has agreed to pose nude for artist Lola (Antonia Kinlay). Arriving at her studio, it’s an initially – and expectedly – awkward and amusing situation. After undressing, Ollie takes up various poses to the rhythm of Lola’s egg-timer. Her dead-pan wit battles Ollie’s incessant talking, who delivers imposing judgements and provocations that Lola easily bats aside. “All art is inherently political,” he blurts out at one point. “Cute. I remember my first opinion!” is Lola’s sarcastic response.

So far, so flirtatious. Things take a turn for the sinister as Ollie reveals he knows Lola. Eight years previously, he recalls a night Lola claims, at first, not to remember. Drunken party, ‘Dead Celebrity’ fancy dress theme, stumbling home together and dancing on park benches. After drawing out Ollie’s version of the night, Lola unveils her big reveal. Not only does she remember the night in detail, its haunted her for years. They didn’t just “have sex”, Ollie raped her. And it’s time he makes amends.

Victims confronting their attacker is not entirely new, nor is it a course of action to be recommended. As authors Thordis Elva and Tom Stranger have proved, conversations between victim and perpetrator can be educational and enlightening, revealing new aspects of our understanding of the culture surrounding rape. Hew Rous-Eyre’s ‘Stripped’ is a vital and timely addition to the discussion. Neither victim nor perpetrator is wholly good or bad – they’re just real people in all their complexity. Rous-Eyre’s hour-long piece works alongside such tomes as Mithu Sanyal’s ‘Rape: From Lucretia to #metoo’ as questioning how we understand rape culture. It’s also a thoroughly entertaining and gaspingly funny piece of theatre.

Kinlay and Reston work exceptionally well together, with the former shining as she moves from dead-pan charm to emotionally vulnerable over the course of the encounter. Reston seems a little less comfortable on stage, but offers a brave performance, especially considering he’s nude about 90% of the time. Max Elton has directed the two well to avoid melodrama, but the piece does lag a little after the ‘big reveal’ and Reston’s response to being confronted seems a little unsure. Felipe Miranda’s set design is deceivingly simple and conjures a detailed artist’s studio superbly well. Elle McAlpine is credited as being the production’s ‘intimacy coordinator’, a role I was pleased to see listed.

Overall, ‘Stripped’ is a nuanced, thought-provoking piece of drama that will stimulate discussion long after the final bows. Cunningly avoiding a ‘taking-sides’ approach to stories of sexual assault, it gives a fresh perspective on a difficult issue, whilst still managing to be a witty and engrossing piece of theatre.

Reviewed by Joseph Prestwich

Photography by Christopher Tribble

King’s Head Theatre – winner of our 2018 Awards – Best London Pub Theatre

Stripped

King’s Head Theatre until

Previously reviewed at this venue:

HMS Pinafore | ★★★★ | April 2019

Coral Browne: This F***Ing Lady! | ★★ | May 2019

This Island’s Mine | ★★★★★ | May 2019

Margot, Dame, The Most Famous Ballerina In The World | ★★★ | July 2019

Mating In Captivity | ★★★★ | July 2019

How We Begin | ★★★★ | August 2019

World’s End | ★★★★ | August 2019

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★★★

“The myriad viewpoints serve to confuse rather than add mystery”

The ‘family’ has always been ripe pickings for drama, traversing all genres from horror, mystery, animation to comedy. In fact it is almost impossible to avoid nowadays with the multitude of repeats of family oriented sitcoms on our television screens.

Actress turned writer Stephanie Jacob has taken this tried and tested formula with the intention of shaking it up by restructuring its narrative flow. Without giving much away, each scene is presented to us more than once (hence the title of the piece). It is a bit like watching an old VHS and continually hitting the rewind button, but the repeat viewing is not as you remember it.

It is a very clever device, but it doesn’t take long for it to lose its novelty value and we are left with a jumble of allegiances. Not one of the characters is quite strong enough to win our empathy and bring us onto their side, so we never really know whose story is the truth; whose memories are the real ones.

A close-knit family of four are reuniting for lunch. It is hinted at that there has been conflict and estrangement in the back-story. The only one who still lives in the family home is matriarch Louise, committedly portrayed by the ever-wonderful Natasha Little, although there are flashes of discomfort in her performance. She has invited her ex-husband, Tom, and their two children to lunch.

The star of the show is Rosie Day who plays the unreserved teenage daughter, Izzy, who bubbles with an infectious, manic energy. Izzy’s candid giddiness is the perfect foil to her inward-looking brother, Adam, played by Charles Reston with a brittleness that constantly threatens to shatter with scarring results. They are both highly strung and Day and Reston do convey well that modern dichotomy of how much ‘the parents are to blame’, particularly the father figure: Chris Larkin captures the right mix of culpability and blamelessness as Tom, veering between deserter and victim depending on which scene we’re in.

Hannah Price’s direction keeps the pace moving and we are kept on our toes throughout. It is fascinating to witness the scenarios replayed slightly differently, each time shedding a new light on the situation.

But, all in all, too many sympathies are tugging at our hearts, and too many layers of the past and present are pasted onto the narrative, for us to really care about the characters, let alone who we should be rooting for. The myriad viewpoints serve to confuse rather than add mystery, and the line between genuine causticity and comedy is often unclear. A shame as this does cloud what is undoubtedly a skilled piece of writing.

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Zute Lightfoot

Tag Archives: Charles Reston

Stripped

★★★★

King’s Head Theatre