Tag Archives: Emma Jude Harris

Sorry Did I Wake You
★★★★

Tristan Bates Theatre

Sorry Did I Wake You

Sorry Did I Wake You

Tristan Bates Theatre

Reviewed – 3rd July 2019

★★★★

 

“it feels intimate in the small playing space but doesn’t shy away from asking big questions”

 

On arrival, the audience walks into a seemingly abandoned empty black box studio – not an actor or prop in sight. We were soon joined by a masked figure that looks like a bear (Zoë Dunn) who unpacks all of the props and costumes for the performance.

Each side of the stage is lit in different colours, one for each of the two sisters Bea (Nina Georgieff) and Annie (Beth Collins). They enter, apparently unaware of the presence of the bear watching in the corner. Immediately, the atmosphere is uneasy – the omnipresent bear, acknowledged occasionally but never discussed.

Sorry Did I Wake You is a tale of two halves. The first, explores the sisters’ relationship as they navigate how to deal with distance as Annie goes to university. This is represented by slick synchronised movement sequences that don’t interfere with the flow of the text. Georgieff stands out in her physicality, particularly when playing the younger version of Bea. The pair’s relationship feels natural and at no points false, which is a testament to the skill of the actors who play the sisters through a range of ages.

The second part of the story, stems from the reveal of great loss. The atmosphere, again, shifts as we see Annie attempt to regain a sense of the world. This section is led by Collins, who subtly but poignantly displays the visceral effects trauma can have on the body. It is clear that the piece has strong direction (Emma Jude Harris) as the movement here is incredibly powerful, showing the repercussions of bad news on an individual. The lighting predominantly used is a single wash light that illuminates the small playing space, but at this point it is so dim that you can barely see the actors. These details are testament to the piece’s multi-sensory exploration of grief.

This whirlwind play takes audiences through a range of emotions, time periods and memories. It feels intimate in the small playing space but doesn’t shy away from asking big questions. The bare stage is scattered with costumes that suggest a web of the entangled memories of the two girls. From the first moment, we are left uneasy at the glaring presence of the unexplained bear. More could have been done with the design of the bear mask to improve the clarity of its presence. However, in this open exploration of loss, design and music elements took the backseat. The actors’ movement skills and delivery take centre stage.

As an audience, we are not given definitive answers but are left to piece together information that is revealed to us in fits and starts. What is at the centre of this innovative play is movement, both physically but also in its narrative. The play may be no picnic, but the bear and the two girls help us to understand the infinite sadness true of loss.

 

Reviewed by Emily Morris

Photography by Hugo Bainbridge

 


Sorry Did I Wake You

Tristan Bates Theatre until 7th July

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Sundowning | ★★★★ | October 2018
Drowned or Saved? | ★★★★ | November 2018
Me & My Left Ball | ★★★★ | January 2019
Nuns | ★★★ | January 2019
Classified | ★★★½ | March 2019
Oranges & Ink | ★★ | March 2019
Mortgage | ★★★ | April 2019
Sad About The Cows | ★★ | May 2019
The Luncheon | ★★★ | June 2019
To Drone In The Rain | ★★ | June 2019

 

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Ares

Ares
★★★★

VAULT Festival

Ares

 

Ares

The Vaults

Reviewed – 17th March 2019

★★★★

 

“a story of the heart, using the infinity of time and space to juxtapose the small, individual worries we have down here on Earth”

 

The final day of the final week of the vast VAULT Festival has finally come. It has been an amazing, jam-packed couple of months of entertainment. From what has seemed like a manic, whirlwind explosion of art, it was a pleasant and satisfying end to the festival to see Katie Granger’s Ares, a play that’s quietly understated and charming, spreading faith and hope about the future, whilst giving an honest reflection on humanity.

This is a one-woman show following Alice (Andrea Hall), a highly intelligent astrophysicist, working at NASA, who has ferociously worked her way up from her humble beginnings on a dirt-tracked farm in Florida, to becoming the first person to lead a team on a mission to Mars. This sought-after position includes picking crew members, and Alice knows that her husband Dan is the best spaceman out there for the job. She knows how risky this mission will be and chances of him never returning are high, but is she able to put aside her personal fears and unease for the sake of the job?

Split into six parts, this hour-long adventure through the entirety of Alice’s life is touching and empathetic. What is most apparent is Alice’s drive to overcome any barriers that stand in her way, whether it be never knowing her mother, to being an African-American farm girl proving herself at Harvard, to surviving as a woman in a male-centric industry. Her story is certainly admirable to say the least. But it is the humanistic cracks that show, letting love in and the constriction of work that really make this a personable and relatable tale. What could easily have been a science lecture, turns into a story of the heart, using the infinity of time and space to juxtapose the small, individual worries we have down here on Earth.

Andrea Hall gives a truthful and humbling performance that is full of honesty. Her right-leg being in a cast meant she was sat down or briefly stood on crutches for the entirety, but this did not diminish the production. What was most important was the storytelling, and she conveyed Katie Granger’s powerful words of narrative with sincere precision. The images that Granger’s text conjure up, are powerful enough on their own. Both cast and crew managed to prove how creating something that is delicate and unobtrusive can be more engaging and have a mightier pull on the heartstrings than anything relying on flashy spectacle. A chair and a captivating story is all you need.

 

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

 

Vault Festival 2019

Ares

Part of VAULT Festival 2019

 

 

 

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