Tag Archives: David Doyle

OUTLYING ISLANDS

★★★★

Jermyn Street Theatre

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OUTLYING ISLANDS

Jermyn Street Theatre

★★★★

OUTLYING ISLANDS cast members

“The subject matter never quite chills our bones, but the context is often unsettling”

The atmosphere hits you like a bracing offshore wind as you descend into the depths of the small basement on Jermyn Street. Anna Lewis’ set: a semi-submerged, semi-derelict stone chapel, creates the mood. Tragic and sepulchral, yet some sort of haven from the cruel elements that sweep the remote Hebridean shoreline outside. Its owner, Kirk, is just as rough-edged. Living alone with Ellen, his niece, they live in quiet captivity until two young, hapless ornithologists burst through the door – literally knocking it off its hinges. The impulsive, emotionally detached Robert, along with the more moral but anxious John have arrived to study the local bird life. It is the eve of World War II, so there is understandably a more sinister motive behind the survey that leaves them stranded on the isle for a month. Less understandable is the fact that the two young men seem somewhat unaware of the pretext. Whereas the isolated, cantankerous Kirk has all the gen. Fully aware that his outlying outcrop is scheduled to be the subject of a biological weapon experiment, he sees the dollar-signs stockpiling in his compensation package.

David Greig’s lyrical play draws you in to this small world. It is claustrophobic but the confines are torn, allowing us to see the wider issues. Little, though, is made of the encroaching anthrax experiment and instead we are watching the social and romantic entanglements as avidly as birdwatchers study our feathered friends’ behaviour. Humans are much more complicated. Greig knows this only too well and the poetry of his language teases out the characters’ serpentine layers with rich dialogue and haunting monologues. The standout performance is Whitney Kehinde’s Ellen. Timid and repressed she swiftly replaces her dour mantle with swathes of lust, as a new-found freedom from her uncle’s tyranny is tragically chanced upon. Kevin McMonagle is wonderfully charismatic as Kirk. Acerbic and unashamedly direct, he tries to keep Ellen like a caged bird but cannot control her mind. The stage lights up every time McMonagle fires his lines with a wry sense of humour and a Chekhovian dramatic irony.

OUTLYING ISLANDS cast member

Bruce Langley and Fred Woodley Evans, as Robert and John respectively, also manage to spin out the humour that runs alongside the poignancy. Deliberate echoes of Laurel and Hardy break the solemnity in a play that is difficult to categorise. The comedy is subtle, like the Mona Lisa smile. It disappears when you look directly at it. The ambiguity is sometimes overdone, though, and confusion starts to set in as the show coasts towards its climax in a tangle of charged eroticism. Despite the shifts in mood, Jessica Lazar’s assured direction evenly paces the action. Clever use of the intimate space sets clear indicators for the interior and exterior scenes, enhanced by David Doyle’s suggestive lighting which evokes the bleakness, and ignites warmth when needed. The subject matter never quite chills our bones, but the context is often unsettling.

Politically and philosophically the play throws up some interesting questions while rooting itself in a story about human relationships. Desire is a complex beast. The male characters are more at sea than Ellen. We wonder whether she is playing the two outsiders or whether her passions are genuine. We are certainly given time to contemplate – the play does stretch itself out. Not every character makes it to the end. But, thanks to the writing and the wonderful performances from the strong quartet of actors, the audience is kept in thrall right up to the closing moments.



OUTLYING ISLANDS

Jermyn Street Theatre

Reviewed on 11th February 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Alex Brenner

 

 


 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE MAIDS | ★★★ | January 2025
NAPOLEON: UN PETIT PANTOMIME | ★★★★ | November 2024
EURYDICE | ★★ | October 2024
LAUGHING BOY | ★★★ | May 2024
THE LONELY LONDONERS | ★★★★ | March 2024
TWO ROUNDS | ★★★ | February 2024
THE BEAUTIFUL FUTURE IS COMING | ★★★★ | January 2024
OWNERS | ★★★½ | October 2023
INFAMOUS | ★★★★ | September 2023
SPIRAL | ★★ | August 2023

OUTLYING ISLANDS

OUTLYING ISLANDS

OUTLYING ISLANDS

 

INSTRUCTIONS

★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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INSTRUCTIONS at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★

instructions

“The play is an interesting experiment, but as a dramatic piece, full of plot holes”

Nathan Ellis’ experimental drama is a tantalizing piece. The situation is this: every day a different actor is invited to the space where Instructions will take place. The actor knows nothing about the play they are about to perform, there has not been any rehearsal. They have been told that nothing bad will happen by the director, whom they meet fifteen minutes before they are due to go on stage. An irresistible set up, for the actor and the audience, right?

Entering the Old Lab space at Summerhall, all one sees on stage is a screen at the back of the performance space, a camera, a monitor, and a rotation disk. So far, so good. Then Josie, the actor tapped for today’s performance, enters. Words appear on the screen behind them, introducing them. They speak, reading the words from the monitor, and perform the instructions it gives. A story is introduced about an actor who has been invited to audition for a film called Love In Paris. We watch Josie audition. They get the part! We watch them perform the emotions of realizing that this is a turning point in their acting career.

I won’t give away anything else about the plot, although admittedly, it is a sketched in plot at best. Moment to moment, it gives our actor an opportunity to show their acting chops. The camera does most of the work, giving us close ups of Josie’s expressions, and later, moments of connection directly with the audience. Josie’s charm, and willingness to immerse completely in the experience that playwright Ellis and Subject Object have given them, is what keeps Instructions afloat. The play is an interesting experiment, but as a dramatic piece, full of plot holes. It drops references to things like artificial intelligence, for example, that don’t really go anywhere. There is no real conclusion to Instructions, other than the assurance that the play will be performed again, the following day, with a new performer named Nikhil in Josie’s place. The audience is left having to do much of the work of making sense of this piece.

As a piece of hyper-realism—namely sharing in the experience of the actor from moment to moment as they construct a character from the instructions given on a monitor—this piece has some interest. But it’s only a starting point for an exploration of themes fleetingly suggested in the actor’s story. I’d like to see Instructions 2.0, but I strongly suspect that would be a film about the making of the film Love in Paris, using A.I. I’d definitely be up for that.


INSTRUCTIONS at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Summerhall – Old Lab

Reviewed on 8th August 2024

by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Alex Brenner

 

 


INSTRUCTIONS

INSTRUCTIONS

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