MY BODY IS NOT YOUR COUNTRY at the Cockpit Theatre

★★★

“Bonito is an intense, captivating performer”

My Body is Not Your Country is a piece that exists on the intersection between theatre and performance art. There are multi-media elements and there’s movement, song and spoken word. There are some deeply striking visuals, and phrasing. Both the poetic, lyrical monologues and the powerful physical images are, at times, both beautiful and evocative.

This one-woman show is produced and presented by Marta Bonito, in collaboration with Amanda Gatti and Laura Padilla. It explores the themes of home and belonging. It questions how to define home and weaves in different perspectives and stories of migration. Parts of it tell Bonito’s own story. But other voices, piped through into the auditorium, tell other women’s stories. Bonito switches between a microphone, and her own voice, which differentiates the stories, slightly. She brings two women on stage at the end, who are presumably the voiceovers we hear throughout. They are clearly deeply moved by the performance, and the strength of their emotion is powerful.

Bonito is an intense, captivating performer. She puts her entire heart, soul and body into it. It is wonderfully performed, and she is energetic, bold and confident in the space. There is a moment where she sprints, mostly naked, in circles around the stage, while still monologuing, which is a deeply impressive feat. She does a bit of everything, and proves herself to be well-rounded and multi-talented.

The difficulty is that the piece is trying to do too much. It’s exploring so many themes, and so many stories, that the message, and the point, are lost. The narrative is deliberately muddled, mixing multiple women’s stories, and experiences – but it has a confusing effect. The piece’s fragmentary nature tries to echo the characters’ own fragmented senses of self and identity. But it makes the piece itself hard to follow. The stories, which should be centred in this narrative, become garbled and intertwined, which lessens their power. The voiceovers are also hard to hear, perhaps adding subtitles to the screen could allow a chance for the beauty of the language to be appreciated. It’s difficult to know what to focus on. The rolling film of the beach, the gyrating performer, wrapping herself in a thin tulle scarf, or the voiceover, telling the story of a fleeing woman. It’s a shame, because some moments are stunning, but the overall effect is overcomplicated.

The lighting design is simple, if a little underused. The team opt to use a set of battery powered mini lights on stage, rather than the overhead lights, which does not seem to add much, but is a fun addition to the set.

The set works well; chairs, scarves, books and boxes are strewn about. Bonito hops over books like lily-pads, she clambers on the boxes, contorting herself through them. A microphone in the corner creates a separate section where different stories can be explored. It creates worlds, characters and stories through beautiful imagery. It is a sadness that the piece itself is not more pared down, so it could also succeed in this.

MY BODY IS NOT YOUR COUNTRY at the Cockpit Theatre

Reviewed on 20th August 2023

by Auriol Reddaway

Previously reviewed at this venue:

End Of The World Fm | ★★★ | August 2023

999 | ★★★ | November 2022

The Return | ★★★ | November 2022

Love Goddess, The Rita Hayworth Musical | ★★ | November 2022

L’Egisto | ★★★ | June 2021

My Body is not Your Country

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★★★

“Kevin Martin Murphy is a sympathetic performer, and knows how to connect with an audience”

Kevin Martin Murphy’s one man show End of the World FM is an appropriately apocalyptic musing on the state of a world that has succumbed to climate crisis, and the collapse of capitalism. Written by Murphy, and directed by James Tudor Jones, End of the World FM has the kind of edgy energy you would expect from a character who finds himself alone on a planet that has contracted to a radio broadcasting studio. Is there anyone out there listening?

In the course of sixty minutes in real time, and the fifteen years that pass on stage, James Martin Murphy invites us into a vastly contracted space that is End of the World FM. It’s a believable depiction of a Radio Host who finds himself the only person—no wait, only creature—left alive on a cooked, and still cooking, planet. Lots of room for regrets, as you might imagine. But what is oddly hopeful about this scenario is that The Host, played by Murphy, has decided to keep broadcasting his radio show. That’s the optimistic interpretation. It might also be that the Host has just gone crazy in his isolation. Surrounding himself with the sounds of a world that is gone is the only way to keep himself tethered, no matter how tenuously, to life. It’s the music, live on air interviews with invited guests who never respond; dispatches from fictitious journalists allegedly reporting from battle zones; political ads for a Democratic candidate for an American election that won’t ever be held, and soothing female voiceovers, that keep the Host engaged. But inside the reality of his studio, it’s also clear that the lack of response—even the sounds of a vanished world—are gradually pushing the Host to the point where he’s going to have to break out, even if it means joining that world in self immolation.

Kevin Martin Murphy is a sympathetic performer, and knows how to connect with an audience. He can switch from existential despair to poignant poems to catastrophe humour at the drop of a hat. Director James Tudor Jones keeps the acting space charged with energy, but refreshingly clear of extraneous set pieces. The space is Murphy’s to fill as he wishes. And although this is a one man show, it should be noted that there are two other characters who play parts in End of the World FM. One is the soothing Female Voice (played by Rachel Verhoef) and the other is the rich and varied soundscape itself (designed by Murphy). There are two main weaknesses to the piece. The first is that the script depicts a static situation (nothing really changes over the course of fifteen years) and it’s difficult to inject much dramatic tension or even suspense into End of the World FM as a consequence. The Host’s decision to end his self imposed isolation seems an almost spur of the moment decision. And Murphy, for all his confident writing skills, is not quite as confident a performer. He’s a bit too likable, and this gives the character of The Host little room for growth.

Nevertheless End of the World FM is a show that steps out of its comfort zone, and tackles the thorny subject of a dying planet head on. It takes courage to write about that, just as it takes courage to stand alone on stage for sixty minutes and play the part of the last living creature on Earth. Is this show a fantasy or a prophecy? You decide. Let’s hope Kevin Martin Murphy and his team continue to work on producing thoughtful pieces like End of the World FM.

Tag Archives: Cockpit Theatre

My Body is not Your Country

★★★

Cockpit Theatre

MY BODY IS NOT YOUR COUNTRY at the Cockpit Theatre

★★★

“Bonito is an intense, captivating performer”

MY BODY IS NOT YOUR COUNTRY at the Cockpit Theatre

Reviewed on 20th August 2023

by Auriol Reddaway