Tag Archives: Grace Venning

AUTUMN

★★½

Park Theatre

AUTUMN at Park Theatre

★★½

“Harry McDonald’s dialogue is snappy and Charlotte Vickers’ direction energetic, but little can save the meandering aimlessness of this story”

This new adaptation brings Ali Smith’s 2016 novel, which is widely viewed as ‘the first post-Brexit novel’ to the stage.

Across two timelines we follow 13-year-old Elisabeth Demand as she befriends her whimsical elderly neighbour Daniel Gluck and the same two characters, 20 years later as Daniel lies comatose in a care facility. There are also a couple of scenes which deviate into the fantastical. A scene between Daniel and his sister, which takes place in a dream world and a scene which details the life of 1960s pop artist Pauline Boty.

Harry McDonald’s dialogue is snappy and Charlotte Vickers’ direction energetic, but little can save the meandering aimlessness of this story, which follows an unlikeable and uninteresting protagonist.

Grace Venning’s set design is playful, props are pulled from drawers and a chaise longue is propped against a backdrop of autumnal trees. There’s innovative use of plastic dust sheets, especially in an evocation of The Tempest. It’s this moment too where Ali Hunter’s lighting design comes into force. Jamie Lu’s sound is most interesting in its subtle hum of the care facility.

There are some glittering moments. Daniel and his sister, who charmingly calls him her summer brother, dance around each other while she’s dressed in a suit of armour. Gary Lilburn as Daniel is joy encapsulated. With a mischievous glint in his eye, he embodies the aging bohemian, making it achingly clear that this story should follow him, by far the most interesting character. This scene particularly sparkles, in part because of clever movement direction from Vickers, but also because of the stunning performance from Nancy Crane. She multi roles throughout the show, some highlights being the smug bureaucratic Post Office worker, the knowing Eastern European cleaner and the New York psychotherapist. She gives each of these women a depth and realism and brings an effortless wit. For much of the show she watches on from the side-lines, a peculiar directorial choice, but her reactions are scene stealing. Lilburn and Crane’s playfulness and joy in this scene is a delightful respite from the gloom that hangs over much of the play.

Both Rebecca Banatvala and Sophie Ward are also strong, as mother and daughter, it’s just that their characters are hard to pinpoint. Elisabeth is utterly joyless, with a single-minded focus on Gluck, which is never fully untangled. Her mother is under explored, and her state of the nation monologues feel tired, nearly a decade on. While ostensibly a political commentary, nothing new or fresh is discussed. Characters bemoan their tiredness with the system, the liars, the current situation. There are comments on racist graffiti and the migrant crisis but it feels tangential to the main narrative. This play doesn’t fully decide what it is, whether it’s a family drama or a state of the nation lament. And it’s not clear what, in 2024, it is adding to the conversation about Brexit, which is relevant or interesting to today.


AUTUMN at Park Theatre

Reviewed on 18th October 2024

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Harry Elletson

 

 


 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

23.5 HOURS | ★★★ | September 2024
BITTER LEMONS | ★★★½ | August 2024
WHEN IT HAPPENS TO YOU | ★★★★★ | August 2024
THE MARILYN CONSPIRACY | ★★★★ | June 2024
IVO GRAHAM: CAROUSEL | ★★★★ | June 2024
A SINGLE MAN | ★★★★ | May 2024
SUN BEAR | ★★★ | April 2024
HIDE AND SEEK | ★★★★ | March 2024
COWBOYS AND LESBIANS | ★★★★ | February 2024
HIR | ★★★★ | February 2024
LEAVES OF GLASS | ★★★★ | January 2024
KIM’S CONVENIENCE | ★★★★ | January 2024

AUTUMN

AUTUMN

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In My Lungs

In My Lungs The Ocean Swells

★★★★

VAULT Festival 2020

In My Lungs

In My Lungs The Ocean Swells

Cavern – The Vaults

Reviewed – 6th February 2020

★★★★

 

“there is also playful joy, real warmth, and two people who we immediately like”

 

This two hander is part tale of growing up, friendship and love, part lament for the fishing industry and part meditation on the sea. It is also wholly engaging and moving. Jenny Walser and Jack Brownridge-Kelly play friends since childhood who become something more. But what happens when one of you is embedded in a place, part of it, and the other needs to get away and build a different kind of life?

He comes from a long line of fishermen, men of the sea. He’s never wanted to do anything else. She wants more, something different, and moves to the city. But they are central to each other’s lives.

There is a mystical thread of ancient ocean running through the play, woven into the present day narrative; an underpinning of deep time carried by wave and storm. The plight of fishing communities in a time when fish stocks have shrunk dramatically, creating unemployment and despair is another thread, and there is also playful joy, real warmth, and two people who we immediately like.

Grace Venning’s simple and effective set is augmented by atmospheric lighting, designed by Joe Price and by Annie May Fletcher’s soundscape that somehow mixes with the noise of trains passing overhead to evoke the wash and rumble of the ocean. The Cornish coast comes alive in this setting, populated by a community we meet through the two character’s stories and memories, and their warm Cornish Accents. It’s a lovely piece of directing from Tash Hyman, using the traverse layout effectively and supporting her actors to create a believable world and tell a very human story.

 

Reviewed by Katre

Photography by Oliver Bryant

 

VAULT Festival 2020

 

 

Click here to see all our reviews from VAULT Festival 2020