Tag Archives: Ethan Doyle

Big

★

VAULT Festival 2020

ReviewsBig, Erin Gill, Ethan Doyle, Ewan Pollitt, Georgia Leanne Harris, Geraint Rhys, Rebecca Dilg, Rebecca Dilg Productions, Urvashi Bohra, Vaani K Sharma, VAULT Festival 2020thespyinthestalls

Big

Network Theatre

Reviewed – 3rd March 2020

★

“clearly has heartfelt intentions, but the execution is hugely disappointing”

Big sends Fat Girl (Erin Gill) on a journey of body confidence after her overbearing mother (Vaani K Sharma) signs her up for a reality show in which an ‘ugly’ contestant is paired up with Hot Boy (Ewan Pollitt), in an attempt to break up her ravenous relationship with Pizza (Geraint Rhys). The conceit of personifying the food Fat Girl finds comforts in seems like a quirky idea at first, but Big soon reveals itself to be a painfully generic and ineffective rehash of every coming of age story you’ve even seen.

Written by Urvashi Bohra, the script doesn’t take time to let story and character developments properly establish themselves or settle, with each scene taking the plot from A to B in a perfunctory but unengaging manner. The script feels unsupported by director Georgia Leanne Harris’ vacuous black box design which only exacerbates the issue of how bland the show feels. The performances are a mixed bag too – while Sharma and Pollitt commit well to their roles, Gill’s portrayal came across as very unenthusiastic, dropping the energy and momentum of the play. This is a stark contrast with Rhys who appears to have wandered in from a nearby panto, as his cartoonish facial expressions made for a deeply jarring experience considering he was mostly acting alongside Gill.

The clear reason for the cartoonishness, though, is that Rhys’ role is entirely mute, which begs the question – why bother personifying someone’s relationship with food in the first place if you’re not going to let them speak? Unfortunately, this feeling of ideas being half-baked and confused permeates throughout the show – the reality programme within Big supposedly always has cameras rolling, although it’s never mentioned until a plot contrivance requires it towards the end. And the entire message around body positivity, as well as feeling totally unearned, also comes across as disingenuous when the character has been defined by the writing exclusively by her weight, with Bohra forgoing a name and settling simply for ‘Fat Girl’.

Big clearly has heartfelt intentions, but the execution is hugely disappointing.

Reviewed by Ethan Doyle

Click here to see all our reviews from VAULT Festival 2020

Ryan Lane Will Be There Now In A Minute

★★★★

VAULT Festival 2020

ReviewsAnna Reddyhoff, Bruce Wang, Ethan Doyle, Felicity Margereson, Georgia Murphy, Heather Ralph, Ioana Curelea, Laurence Cook, Ryan Lane, Ryan Lane Will Be There Now In A Minute, VAULT Festival 2020thespyinthestalls

Ryan Lane Will Be There Now In A Minute

Cage – The Vaults

Reviewed – 29th February 2020

★★★★

“Every opportunity is seized to squeeze every laugh out of a moment, and Lane does it with aplomb”

As Ryan Lane bounds on in a mix of traditional Welsh (women’s) dress and a foliage-infused scarlet cape, you’d be forgiven for thinking, ‘perhaps this is a bit too niche’. It was no concern to me as a fellow Welshman, but there was a definite anxiety in the audience in the opening to Ryan Lane Will Be There Now in a Minute. Luckily, the subsequent 55 minutes or so sees Lane charm and delight with a truly hilarious and occasionally poignant look at small-town characters and values.

Set in the rural town of Llandiloes, Lane takes us on a tour of the cast of characters that inhabits it, ranging from the school rugby teacher to the local tour guide. They interact with the audience while going about their daily business, framing them as reluctant sports students or unenthusiastic tourists, which sets up a goldmine of comic potential that Lane unrelentingly reaps. Every opportunity is seized to squeeze every laugh out of a moment, and Lane does it with aplomb, through the extensive physical and vocal toolkit that he and director Georgia Murphy establish with each character. The wit oozing from the script is also exceptional, with a Python-esque surreality to some of the one-liners conjuring a cacophony of belly laughs from the audience.

The sinew connecting each character that Lane depicts is the undercurrent of bigotry that comes entrenched with living in a close-knit rural community such as Llandiloes, and is delivered with expert subtlety in telling the story of a schoolboy struggling with his sexuality. Where many shows fall into the trap of becoming too preachy, Ryan Lane Will Be There Now in a Minute almost swings too far in the opposite direction, displaying unfathomable restraint, letting the irreverent hilarity on the surface smuggle in the more meaningful undertones lurking beneath.

Reviewed by Ethan Doyle

Photography by Bruce Wang

Click here to see all our reviews from VAULT Festival 2020