MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT at the Jack Studio Theatre

★★

“Lincoln is at her best when she portrays characters from her past”

Versatile actress Mary Lincoln writes and performs this hour long one person show, directed by Samuel Ripman. The story is set in Marcella’s loft – a deathtrap of a space with low headbanging beams and dodgy electrics, strewn with a lifetime of boxes and miscellanea (Production Designer Mark Tildesley). Marcella’s quandary is that she is about to put into the loft eight identical items bought as redundant Christmas presents but feels in the spirit of decluttering that she should throw out eight existing items. This leads her down memory lane and she regales us with a series of anecdotes as she selects the items for recycling – mostly old costumes collected in a lifetime as a theatrical chorus girl. Of course, the simplest thing would be to have thrown out the eight items of no use whatsoever and hung on to these precious items with their history and their memories. But hey-ho.

Marcella is a sprightly lady in her sixties dressed appropriately for chores in black dungarees and a headscarf (Costume Designer Suzanne Bell). Right from the outset, she steps forward to speak to the audience. Is this Mary Lincoln the actor-writer stepping out of character and speaking as herself or Marcella the character? Are we invited into Marcella’s loft to be part of the drama or is this a sort of stand-up comedy routine? I am confused.

Marcella clambers around the space. Some of the movement is clumsy, which is understandable as this is a cluttered roof space after all. But showing the movement from ground floor into loft, and vice versa feels uncomfortable. And the costume rail is positioned so far upstage that Marcella disappears from view when she goes behind it which is unfortunate. Her constant rattling of the clothes hangers is also an irritation.

Some of the costumes come with their own half-remembered showtunes that we hear Marcella humming inside her head. A lovely idea, but with the lo-fi sound recording and whispery rendition the sound comes out as more underwhelming than ghostly. And in case we don’t understand what is happening here, a coloured spotlight onto the clothing rail gives us a visual clue. (Lighting/Sound Designer Stuart Glover).

I’m sorry to say that nothing here is very interesting. An acting out of the poem Megan Marries Herself whilst Marcella parades around in a hideous veil that she has long ago bought from a charity shop (why?) loses direction. The crucial central story of the green coat has Marcella dressing herself in plastic wrapping, and despite the moving nature of the tale’s poignant ending the rendition is too long and Marcella’s sweeping movements of the plastic covering too distracting to be fully effective.

To give the actress credit though, this is Mary’s magnificently remembered monologue, maintained with moments of melodrama. Lincoln is at her best when she portrays characters from her past; playing her younger self playing St Joan is very funny, the supportive Scottish drama teacher is endearing, and best of all is her portrayal of Marcella’s Italian Catholic matriarch. Perhaps these elements of the play could be extended further – allow the actress to act – and reduce the breaking of the fourth wall.

A programme note explains the genesis of the work and the family nature of the piece. Perhaps, though, this actor and director are too close to the stories the play contains and it needs an outside interpreter to maximise the work’s dramatic potential. Just a thought.

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT at the Jack Studio Theatre

Reviewed on 26th September 2024

by Phillip Money

Photography by Rodney Smith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

DEPTFORD BABY | ★★★ | July 2024

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING | ★★★ | August 2022

RICHARD II | ★★★★★ | February 2022

HOLST: THE MUSIC IN THE SPHERES | ★★★★★ | January 2022

PAYNE: THE STARS ARE FIRE | ★★★ | January 2022

TRESTLE | ★★★ | June 2021

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT

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★★★

“a successful ode to community strength and resilience in the face of larger forces”

Deptford Baby is an anarchic, freewheeling, and joyous expression of local pride in the face of the rising tide of gentrification, inflected with the language of Southeast London’s community, returning following a 2022 debut in Deptford’s Matchstick Piehouse.

The performance begins before the play proper starts, with DJ Tommy Tappah playing a selection of UK garage and house tunes to the audience as they enter, setting the scene of Deptford High Street on a balmy summer’s evening, with people milling around on the street, enjoying a drink and soaking up the sun. Tommy Tappah’s call and response interplay – ‘when I say Deptford, you say baby’; ‘when I say Chino, you say Igwe’ – helping to create a party atmosphere that, in a room without seats, would certainly have resulted in dancing.

Writer-performer Chukwudi Onwere plays Chino Igwe, a Deptford local and aspiring novelist, who is walking down the High Street on the way to submit his Master’s thesis on Black British History, when suddenly the area is hit by an earthquake and then a tidal wave, catalysing a series of picaresque encounters with a love interest, giant fish, elderly relatives. Culminating in a climactic battle by the residents of Deptford and beyond, led by Chino, to defend their neighbourhood. ‘See it, fight it, restore your community’ is a refrain throughout the piece, and above all Deptford Baby is a celebration of locality, of the people and places that make an area special, and the need to fight to protect it.

These events are visually rendered by Carey Chomsoonthorn’s spectacular lighting design, which makes the most of the sparse staging, using flashing and coloured lights to evoke earthquakes, floods, and giant fish. Onwere’s performance is strong, and his portrayal of Chino’s Nigerian father and aunty are very well received by the audience. He throws himself around the small space, victim of many of misfortunes, and in this is well directed by Marc Pouni. Tommy Tappah’s mimed interventions and reactions to the action on stage provide an enjoyable interplay with the main action, and suggest that, should he want to, he’s ready to step out from behind the decks and into centre stage.

The rapid-fire nature of the play is one of its strengths. We are repeatedly told that Chino thrills the Deptford community with his adventure stories, and Deptford Baby’s structure surely echoes this, running through many floridly described, outlandish situations that act as an allegory for the external pressures of gentrification bearing down on Deptford. While I feel that some topics could have been broached differently, knife crime for example is touched on as a comedic example of his grandfather’s bravery, whose traumatic past is likewise dealt with as a sort of footnote, overall Deptford Baby is a successful ode to community strength and resilience in the face of larger forces, that is both thought-provoking and funny.

Tag Archives: Jack Studio Theatre

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT

★★

Jack Studio Theatre

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT at the Jack Studio Theatre

★★

“Lincoln is at her best when she portrays characters from her past”

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT at the Jack Studio Theatre

Reviewed on 26th September 2024

by Phillip Money

Photography by Rodney Smith