Tag Archives: Cockpit Theatre

Unbelonger – 3.5 Stars

Unbelonger

Unbelonger

Cockpit Theatre

Reviewed – 9th November 2018

β˜…β˜…β˜…Β½

“it doesn’t quite probe far enough, risking becoming just another well-trodden story of one culture failing to integrate with another”

 

Performed as part of this year’s Voila! Europe Festival, one of the rare festivals in London that brings together British and continental European artists to create what they call a β€œborder-busting mix of multicultural, multilingual, and multidisciplinary performance”, β€˜Unbelonger’ is a clever, witty and inventive piece of physical theatre exploring ideas of identity, discrimination and – you guessed it – belonging.

Directed and devised by Finnish artist Erika Eva, the piece uses puppetry and movement to narrate one person’s struggle to feel at home in a foreign environment. What words or actions make us feel excluded, and how does this exclusion affect our own sense of personal and cultural identity? Whether it be work, school or the search for love, the cost of β€˜fitting in’ can sometimes be high. To what extent can communities or groups accept β€˜different’ cultures, and how could we work to interweave these cultures successfully?

Thematically, β€˜Unbelonger’ asks vital and timely questions of its audience and seeing this work here just five months before Britain leaves the European Union reminds us to think more about how our national identity is formed and defined. The international cast (Janaki Gerard, Silvia Manazzone, Tongchai Hansen and Durassie Kiangangu) are energetic and their movement precise, whisking between set pieces effortlessly. Eva combines repetition and an effective use of lighting to explore how good something can look from the outside, but reveal itself to be cold and hollow when we finally get invited in. Xavier Velastin provides a thrilling, almost dystopian, synth-like score, playing it live on his own board of electronic instruments (and what looked like a joystick). Expert use of lighting highlights moments of private reflection, and some cute puppetry from Manazzone creates an intimate relationship between the self and its past.

β€˜Unbelonger’ is bursting with beautiful, funny set pieces, and the storytelling is clear from the start. As a sum of its parts though, it feels like it doesn’t quite probe far enough, risking becoming just another well-trodden story of one culture failing to integrate with another. It forces some uncomfortable questions nonetheless, and it is work like this that makes the Voila! Europe Festival such a thrilling and necessary part of London theatre.

Reviewed by Joseph Prestwich

 

Unbelonger

Cockpit Theatre until 12th November

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Cantata for Four Wings | β˜… | April 2018
Into the Woods | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | May 2018
On Mother’s Day | β˜…β˜…β˜…Β½ | August 2018
Zeus on the Loose | β˜…β˜… | August 2018
The Distance You Have Come | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | October 2018

 

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The Distance You Have Come – 4 Stars

Come

The Distance You Have Come

Cockpit Theatre

Reviewed – 18th October 2018

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

“it was utterly impossible to not be moved by the all-consuming singing of Alexia Khadime”

 

Scott Alan’s new song cycle, The Distance You Have Come, at the Cockpit Theatre is an apologetically raw evening, of six actors, 26 songs and a lot of heartstrings pulled out. It was, at first, difficult to see what held the individual songs together (besides an obvious love of American musical theatre) but the powerful performances and commitment to unadulterated emotion got us there in the end.

The songs were stapled together by a, sometimes contrived, shared setting in a park and their theme of achievement of any type. Two men fell in love and became fathers. A young recovering alcoholic overcame the split with his partner. Two women left one another as one became a surrogate mother and the other stalked the park looking for men to sing songs with. The show was redemptive as characters moved from cynicism and despair to success and fulfilment, but ‘redemption’ was less the strong intellectual glue needed and more attractive wallpaper over the thematic gaps between songs.

The performances were almighty as individual efforts, leaving no meaningful gaze ungazed and no high note unhit. This young cast clearly has great futures ahead of them (and some already have great pasts behind them), with commitment, energy and vocal talent oozing out of each pore. Jodie Jacobs (Anna) stood out as a respite from the High School Musical style which is all pervasive in a musical theatre and it was utterly impossible to not be moved by the all-consuming singing of Alexia Khadime (Laura).

With these invincible performances, the show was occasionally let down by strange decisions and a few lazy choices, lyrically and on stage. Cliche was the name of the game as an ‘alcoholic’ sipped from a hip flask and was tormented by masked and hooded abstract figures. The set was a strange fusion of nature and bougie restaurant with a giant leaf on the floor, a tree above and bare filament light bulbs hanging from the rafters. Lyrically this show pushed the boundaries of where normal musical theatre cheese meets lazy cliche with lines like ‘A home is where the heart is meant to be and you’ll always have a home inside of me’ feeling empty and tired. It was a shame to see small issues not dealt with (it wasn’t the first night) with actors performing to empty corners and the speakers consistently buzzing over one particularly popular high note.

This all said, The Distance You Have Come is not a show to be dissected or understood, but a show which enjoyably surrounds you with enough emotion that you can’t help but go along with it. The themes were contrived and the technical aspects were loose, but the exposed and unapologetic emotion of the performance culminated in a predictably moving evening.

 

Reviewed by William Nash

Photography by Darren Bell

 


The Distance You Have Come

Cockpit Theatre until 28th October

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Cantata for Four Wings | β˜… | April 2018
Into the Woods | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | May 2018
On Mother’s Day | β˜…β˜…β˜…Β½ | August 2018
Zeus on the Loose | β˜…β˜… | August 2018

 

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com