“The writing has a really interesting rhythm that creates tension and fear, but occasionally this tension leads nowhere.”
Brooke Robinson’s one-woman thriller has an interesting concept and an exciting premise, playing with our inherent voyeuristic desires to watch lives unfold around us, despite us never really knowing anyone’s truth.
The play is about Ann (Grace Chilton), a lonely recluse who obsessively watches her neighbours through the windows to their flats. The arrival of a new neighbour and his daughter – a girl in a pink dress – sparks Ann’s attention. When the new neighbour denies the existence of the girl in the pink dress, Ann is left to question the accuracy of her own vision, regularly complaining about her sight and thereby leaving her dangerous obsessions to spiral.
The set of hanging blinds that set the stage is simple but effective, not only making great use of the Studio at The Vaults but also allowing us to focus on Grace Chilton’s disturbing performance as Ann. Although the fast paced monologues occasionally become confused, they are delivered articulately and succinctly, allowing Chilton to give life to this unstable character who is frightening and endearing all at once. Through Melissa Dunne’s neat direction, the performer manages to break through moments of obsessive intensity and create moments of genuine comedy, like when she phones a neighbour in distress to then proudly admit to us, with a humble smile, that she knows all the tenants phone numbers by heart.
However, it is these changes in tone that the play lacked. The writing has a really interesting rhythm that creates tension and fear, but occasionally this tension leads nowhere. Chilton packs an emotional punch when the action climaxes, but the play feels like it needed more of these outbursts. Despite the fast paced nature of the writing and the performance, the often unchanging tone somewhat slowed the piece down.
The play certainly has some tension and mystery and the performance does have a haunting quality to it, but there is opportunity within it to create even greater suspense, even more fear, and perhaps just a little more clarity.
“The show moves along at a fast pace and there is never a dull moment”
The thought of attending a play described as a ‘dark, savage and unflinching exploration of lesbian subculture in London’ has the potential to polarise an audience and it was with an element of apprehension that I arrived to see Grotty at The Bunker. I left having seen a terrifically well written, acted and directed piece of modern theatre.
Grotty is a fast moving, darkly funny yet ultimately sad semi-autobiographical story, written by and starring the award winning Izzy Tennyson who had recent success with Brute. She is Rigby, an anti-hero who joins the Dalston lesbian scene in London and whose life centres around two very different women. Together they form a triangle and narrator Rigby brings us into her world often speaking directly to the audience with flashbacks explaining her journey.
On entering the theatre we are greeted by a simple but detailed set and are transported to a basement club where it is ‘Clam Jam’ night (a phrase I had to look up on the internet!). The audience then witnesses a sub-culture that has often been confined to the basements of gay clubs and we see some women behaving really badly.
Grotty has a stellar cast of five, playing nine parts and each actor is a joy to watch. Tennyson takes centre stage with her portrayal of Rigby. She has a style of delivery that surely has potential for a far wider audience. The two scenes where she describes lesbian sex and takes some recreational drugs are extremely clever and very funny. Rebekah Hinds convincingly plays two very different characters; firstly the overpowering love interest Toad and also straight Kate. Grace Chilton also plays two parts. As the Witch she is heavily into BDSM and takes Rigby to some dark places. She also plays Elliot who is a completely opposite character and has a great influence in Rigby’s life.
Anita-Joy Uwajeh takes on three very different roles as Natty, Josie and Dr Alexandra. She plays each role with passion and conviction. Completing the cast is Clare Gollop who appears towards the end of the play as Rigby’s mother and whose role really is key to the whole piece.
Hannah Hauer-King’s direction is perfect. The show moves along at a fast pace and there is never a dull moment. However in the first half of the show some of the humour was lost as the cast often continued speaking before the audience had finished laughing. Designer Anna Reid’s set is basic but the use of square pouffes enabled the cast to easily transport us from seedy nightclub to ‘posh flats’. The lighting design from Zoe Spurr was simple but effective as was Alexandra Faye Braithwaites’s sound design.
Writer Izzy Tennyson and Kitty Wordsworth from Damsel Productions should be proud of this show. It has comedy, pathos, some wickedly funny, if questionable, behaviour and is a joy to watch.
