Tag Archives: Ciaran Cunningham

TARANTULA

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Arcola Theatre

TARANTULA

Arcola Theatre

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

“a magnificent and terrible thing to watch”

Darkness descends into the carefree life of teenager Toni with such unexpected force that breath drains from her lungs. Then ours. Ever after in this heart-wrecking drama, we struggle to regain balance.

Because, by the time this trauma strikes, young Toni has become our friend. Theoretically, the teen – self-deprecating, romantic, smart – occupies the theatre space alone for 90 minutes, but such is her boundless joy at the prospect of a budding romance that we quickly become her BFFs. What should I wear? What about this? Or this? What should I say? Aren’t his eyelashes just the loveliest?

The mechanics of a crush are awkward so she’s eager to crowdsource some insight.

The romance is almost too perfect as first loves must be. They plan a life together over their first shared milkshake. She will be a writer, he will take pictures. They hold hands. Brush arms. The individual kisses merge into one swelling super-kiss…

But the title of the play is Tarantula. The playwright is master weaver Philip Ridley. Nothing can be as straightforwardly simple as snogging by moonlight.

Something’s coming. Darkness is coming. The clue is in the moments of fugue state when Toni mentions her prospect’s name – Michael. Is she lovestruck? Or something-else-struck?
We soon find out.

You cannot take your eyes off Georgie Henley, who plays Toni. She won’t let you. As the naive schoolgirl, she is mercurial and giddy and all the things a girl can and should be. She dares you not to delight in her. Later, that same thrill is transmuted by her experience into something forced and manic. She is the same but different. The same but shrill. She challenges you to spot the artifice of her carefully constructed veneer of uber-glee.

Under Wiebke Green’s direction, the trauma that visits Toni is physical. It stalks her endlessly and then – in a quite astonishing and visceral way – it occupies her. She struggles to breathe. She is paralysed. She is felled. She remembers.

This parasitical body snatcher is a composite of unresolved pain and guilt and grief. Because one version of Toni died that day – the bright Oxford-bound lover of books and do-gooding school clubs – and this uncanny valley version took her place. What’s left is a too-keen gym bunny who urgently wants to be the hero of everybody’s tale.

To achieve this transformation, Ridley’s script is full of character, heart and keen detail. His lusty appetite for story, the darker the better, help to create a topical slice of gothic horror lightened by moments of utmost tenderness. It is perhaps 10 minutes too long, especially in the later stages, but accomplished, nevertheless.

For all the cleverness, laughter and texture in the script, it is the sinister contortions of Georgie Henley that will stick in the memory. Especially that manic dead-eyed smile, reminiscent of the innocent we met at the start of the evening but now fixed and crazed as Toni is compelled to make stand after stand against the dark tyranny of her memories.

This is a story about second chances when second chances are the last resort. To illustrate this, Georgie Henley destroys us with the scale of her loss. Her performance is courageous and raw. It is a magnificent and terrible thing to watch.



TARANTULA

Arcola Theatre

Reviewed on 10th January 2025

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Kate Hockenhull

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTTS | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | December 2024
DISTANT MEMORIES OF THE NEAR FUTURE | β˜…β˜…β˜… | November 2024
THE BAND BACK TOGETHER | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | September 2024
MR PUNCH AT THE OPERA | β˜…β˜…β˜… | August 2024
FABULOUS CREATURES | β˜…β˜…β˜… | May 2024
THE BOOK OF GRACE | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | May 2024
LIFE WITH OSCAR | β˜…β˜…β˜… | April 2024
WHEN YOU PASS OVER MY TOMB | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | February 2024
SPUTNIK SWEETHEART | β˜…β˜…β˜… | October 2023
GENTLEMEN | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | October 2023

TARANTULA

TARANTULA

TARANTULA

 

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🎭 A TOP SHOW IN JULY 2024 🎭

SKELETON CREW

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Donmar Warehouse

SKELETON CREW at the Donmar Warehouse

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“a subtle and quiet portrayal of people who feel real and vivid”

Not a lot happens in this play but that’s the crux of its genius. It elevates the everyday. It’s about everything and nothing.

Written in 2014 and first performed in New York in 2016, Skeleton Crew follows four workers in a car manufacturing plant in Detroit. A foreman and three floor workers. As their jobs are threatened, the quiet day to day of their lives unravel, with each facing the uncertainty of their future.

Watching the steady and inevitable disintegration of this department sounds bleak. Somehow, it’s not. The humanity and quiet kindness in these characters gives the audience hope. As the story slowly unfurls, it remains compelling and strangely optimistic.

Dominique Morrisseau’s script is tight. Each line oozes with character. Dancing between philosophy and banter, the dialogue snaps and sizzles. And she knows when to hold back. There’s power in what isn’t said. Matthew Xia leans into that silence in his direction. There are moments of stillness, of pause. Watching people get ready for work, alone, tells you so much about them.

Many of these moments are not silent, just without dialogue. Nicola T Chang’s carefully crafted sound design gives each character a soundtrack, quietly signalling whose story will be the focus of each scene. From Aretha to J Dilla, to the sound of the fridge whirring, this attention to detail makes the world, and the characters, feel more vibrant.

All of the performances are strong – especially from newcomer Branden Cook. However all eyes were glued to Pamela Nomvete in a remarkable performance as the jaded mother hen Faye.

Ultz was the show’s designer, and perhaps undelivered a little. The set was naturalistic – a break room – but each scene was intercut with the clanking of shadowy machinery, an illusion assisted by CiarΓ‘n Cunningham’s lighting design. There was a moment of pyrotechnics, which was exciting, but felt a little out of place. For a designer with such an impressive track record, this isn’t Ultz’s best work.

Don’t come to this show expecting surprising plot twists, or a fresh political take. But come for the beauty in a subtle and quiet portrayal of people who feel real and vivid.


SKELETON CREW at the Donmar Warehouse

Reviewed on 6th July 2024

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Helen Murray

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE HUMAN BODY | β˜…β˜…β˜… | February 2024
LOVE AND OTHER ACTS OF VIOLENCE | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | October 2021

SKELETON CREW

SKELETON CREW

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