The Open

The Space

Reviewed – 26th September 2019

★★★

“As topical and in vogue the offbeat concept is, the final execution does not live up to what it promises”

Anyone for a game of golf? Well get your clubs out and tee up, as there’s a new course in town, and it’s unlike any other seen before. The Open explores the ramifications of our near-distant future in an absurd yet unnervingly plausible fashion, but lacks an inventive story to follow the strong concept.

The year is 2050. It’s post-Brexit and Great Britain looks a little different to how we know it. Now called the GBGC (Great British Golf Course), our beloved country has been bought and taken over by the one and only Donald Trump, and turned into a mass of putting holes. It’s a bleak landscape. Protagonists Arthur (Priyank Morjaria) and Patrick (Tom Blake) are stuck in this dystopian world, despondently going about their monotonous work on the course. Arthur more diligently does what he is told, whilst Patrick yearns for the past and to see his love Jana (Heidi Niemi) again. Her unexpected return causes havoc, and with not much time to spare, gives these two men an ultimatum that will change their lives.

As topical and in vogue the offbeat concept is, the final execution does not live up to what it promises. With so much exposition to have to get across, most scenes fall flat as they become discussion based with little action ever taking place. The second half does certainly pick up pace, but writer and director Florence Bell could have created more dynamic scenarios to portray instead. At times you’re left questioning small but niggling plot holes, such as, what’s happening to the UK residents who aren’t working for the golf course? There’s also the bizarre choice of never mentioning Donald Trump, even though he is the sole reason Britain has turned into a vast manicured turf for the rich. Possibly it’s a directorial choice to only elude to him, but it simply does not work.

There is however some undoubtedly worthy attempts from Bell at examining the disparity between the rich and poor, imagining a future where the gap has become even wider. Where the UK are still reliant on people from overseas to do our low-paid jobs, and the xenophobia from Trump and Brexit’s rhetoric has exploded into awful action.

The cast try their best with putting life into the lacklustre script. In particular, Morjaria as Arthur gives a standout performance that feels truthful, with clear character progression, where others can come across one-dimensional or without real motivations.

The set design by Tom Craig is a pleasing sight. The simple but ever so effective use of green Astro turf along the whole stage immediately transports you to the artificial, Disneyland-esque perfection that the GBGC is trying to sell. The stark contrast of the stage for the second half is a nice visual indication of the murkier business that goes on underneath the corporations facade.

All in all, the whole concept just feels too big to fit into its 105 minutes running time. What strives to be an inventive new take on the dystopian-thriller genre, made popular by the likes of Black Mirror, turns out to be mostly predictable and not enthralling enough. Just like golf really.

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Kit Dambite

The Open

The Space until 12th October

Previously reviewed at this venue:

The Conductor | ★★★★ | March 2019

We Know Now Snowmen Exist | ★★★ | March 2019

Post Mortem | ★★★★ | April 2019

The Wasp | ★★★★ | April 2019

Delicacy | ★★★½ | May 2019

Me & My Doll | ★★ | May 2019

Mycorrhiza | ★★★ | May 2019

Holy Land | ★★★ | June 2019

Parenthood | ★★★½ | July 2019

Chekhov In Moscow | ★★★★ | August 2019

Click here to see our most recent reviews

The Interpretation of Dreams

The Bunker

Reviewed – 12th November

★★★

“unfortunately, it left some a little baffled and others perhaps clapping along in the hope that they had ‘got’ the play”

It’s difficult to like a play you don’t understand, it’s even harder when the play doesn’t want to be understood. The Interpretation of Dreams by Monkhead theatre, at the Bunker Theatre, is a cryptic collection of five short pieces based on the Sigmund Freud’s seminal work: The Interpretation of Dreams. The work has been put together in a week by a group of young actors, directors and writers, and reflects their commitment to interesting, tight but befuddling theatre.

Three of the four storylines (making up four of the five pieces) sit comfortably against one another as dreamlike sequences exploring what a dream can mean and should mean and how those dreams can interact with our waking life. The final piece had a lot to say about consumerism and how ideas are captured and bottled, but it so much an appendix that it just confused matters further. The pieces are interspersed with thought-provoking and interesting audiovisual content from Josh Field; carrying an unsettling and disjunctive tone that leaves the audience in a dream-like state without labouring the analogy. A helpful image from the source material of repressed memory as an unruly audience member helps guide the audience into what is otherwise a relatively unclear play.

The set and lighting work well and with each piece set in the same white bourgeois kitchen, it gives them that perfect sense of disconnection from space – deepening the sense that we are right now in a dream. The lighting is congruent and creative if not original with handheld torches being used as much as the house lighting.

‘Clever’ plays don’t lend themselves to kind reviews, and this was a ‘clever’ play – in fact, it was oddly self-aware that some audience members really weren’t getting what was going on. At times the jerky physical theatre and unclear script felt like it was confusing in the hope that this would be interpreted as deep, which left this audience member feeling deeply ignorant. There was a wonderfully poignant representation of anxiety in Would You Let a Stranger Wake You Up? but this was set against the confusing movement which left you thinking that Frued’s work was less inspiration and more required reading.

The quality of acting was genuinely good across the board and stood out in Irma’s Injection in particular. Joshua Jacob (Josh) was noticeable for his enjoyment and energy in a part that would have been boringly cryptic without it.

What this play had in thoughtfulness it lacked in clarity. Perhaps this was an attempt to mirror the source material or caused by an authentic unwillingness to dictate to the audience. Though unfortunately, it left some a little baffled and others perhaps clapping along in the hope that they had ‘got’ the play. Maybe one day these words right now will be mocked by scholars who get to the bottom of the play, but for now, it’s impossible to truly enjoy a show which you can’t break the encryption of.

The Space

Reviewed – 26th September 2019

★★★

“As topical and in vogue the offbeat concept is, the final execution does not live up to what it promises”

The cast try their best with putting life into the lacklustre script. In particular, Morjaria as Arthur gives a standout performance that feels truthful, with clear character progression, where others can come across one-dimensional or without real motivations.

All in all, the whole concept just feels too big to fit into its 105 minutes running time. What strives to be an inventive new take on the dystopian-thriller genre, made popular by the likes of Black Mirror, turns out to be mostly predictable and not enthralling enough. Just like golf really.

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Kit Dambite

The Open

The Space until 12th October

Previously reviewed at this venue:

The Bunker

Reviewed – 12th November

★★★

“unfortunately, it left some a little baffled and others perhaps clapping along in the hope that they had ‘got’ the play”

The quality of acting was genuinely good across the board and stood out in Irma’s Injection in particular. Joshua Jacob (Josh) was noticeable for his enjoyment and energy in a part that would have been boringly cryptic without it.

Reviewed by William Nash

Photography courtesy Monkhead Theatre

The Interpretation of Dreams

The Bunker – additional date 19th November

Previously reviewed at this venue: