Tag Archives: Julian Starr

Scrounger

Scrounger

★★★★

Finborough Theatre

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Scrounger

Scrounger

Finborough Theatre

Reviewed – 10th January 2020

★★★★

 

“a great example of a play that does not appeal to our human desire for resolution, but instead rightly demonstrates that the fight for true equality and justice is far from over”

 

Directed by Lily McLeish, Scrounger is an autobiographical play that recounts a traumatic incident experienced by Athena Stevens at London City Airport in 2015. Born with athetoid cerebral palsy, Stevens was removed from a British Airways flight when staff could not get her £30,000 electric wheelchair into the hold. When Stevens’ chair was returned to her, it was severely damaged, leaving her without autonomous mobility and trapped in her flat for months before she received settlement.

Through Twitter hashtags, an appeal to EU law, and a petition organised by campaign group 38 Degrees, Stevens boldly embarks on trying to a change a system that is inherently stacked against her.

Stevens however does not only point blame at our Conservative government, but also the show’s presumed audience, specifically, “the left leaning, Guardian reading, Daily Mail hating, Oxfam giving, colour blind seeing, red voting, paper straw using, conflict avoiding, zen loving, feminist supporting, always for the few…liberal minded you.” The villains of this story are not just the incompetent staff she had encountered, but Stevens’ yoga-loving boyfriend and obtusely middle-class friend Emma as well, all of whom are played excellently by Leigh Quinn.

A central theme of the play is conflict and the inherent privilege of being able to avoid it. Stevens notes that amongst her friends she is known as always being ‘up for a fight’ but explains that her very existence as a disabled individual necessitates this. The faith that Stevens’ boyfriend has in the legal system to deliver justice highlights this well and succeeds in making the audience consider how they too may just be another cog in the flawed machine.

The production is split into some-twenty chapters titled with an exciting summation of the contents of the coming scenes though what follows sometimes only lasts a couple of minutes. Simultaneously, when the chapters reach double figures, there is little plot to show for it. There would certainly be great benefit to the performance’s pace in amalgamating a few chapters.

There is also little to no sense of how much real time has passed until Quinn suddenly announces halfway through the show that it has been 35 days since the incident. Based on the events that have unfolded by this point, the audience would be safe to assume it had been less than a week. Signposting the days more clearly, and perhaps even replacing the chapter titles with the day count, would certainly help to reduce moments where the play feels stagnant.

A wonky white house set (Anna Reid) surrounds the stage with two respective doors and neon-framed windows for entrance, exit and pop-ups. When she’s not playing a plethora of different characters, Quinn sits at a desk to the front right of the stage from which she accesses several props, a soundboard and a microphone. The sound (Julian Starr) and lighting (Anthony Doran) does well to match the mood on stage, though some of the production’s most powerful moments occur when everything is stripped back and Stevens addresses the audience without the glitz and glamour of the theatre.

Scrounger offers an important narrative about oppression and non-linear progression. Crucially, Stevens’ story does not end in rainbows and sunshine with everything tied up in a little bow. There is no great monetary victory; no law created to protect those vulnerable to similar mistreatment; and no real consequences for the companies involved. Scrounger is a great example of a play that does not appeal to our human desire for resolution, but instead rightly demonstrates that the fight for true equality and justice is far from over.

 

Reviewed by Flora Doble

Photography by Lily McLeish

 


Scrounger

Finborough Theatre until 1st February

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Jeannie | ★★★★ | November 2018
Beast on the Moon | ★★★★★ | January 2019
Time Is Love | ★★★½ | January 2019
A Lesson From Aloes | ★★★★★ | March 2019
Maggie May     | ★★★★ | March 2019
Blueprint Medea | ★★★ | May 2019
After Dark; Or, A Drama Of London Life | ★★★★ | June 2019
Go Bang Your Tambourine | ★★★★ | August 2019
The Niceties | ★★★ | October 2019
Chemistry | ★★★ | November 2019

 

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Tiger Under the Skin
★★★★

RADA Gielgud Theatre

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Tiger Under the Skin

Tiger Under the Skin

RADA Gielgud Theatre

Reviewed – 26th June 2019

★★★★

 

“powerful lines and relatable images will remain with the audience as they leave the theatre”

 

Tom Kelsey performs his own one-man show on home turf, at the RADA Theatre in central London, where he trained. In spite of the intensely personal nature of this piece, Tom relaxes into the monologue. His openness makes for both an endearing and frightening performance. The audience is taken on a journey through an average day which spins out of control as Tom uncharacteristically accepts a friend’s offer to join on a night out.

The missing piece of the puzzle is the confession he opens with: Tom suffers from anxiety and panic attacks. The play portrays his suffering through a simple but powerful animal metaphor. The events of the night lead to the panic under his skin to surface once more, manifesting in complete tiger metamorphosis.

A long dark, wooden table at the back of the room makes up the set which acts, at different points, as park bench, tube and skyscraper. A raw and compelling performance renders every new scene completely believable.

Impressive execution of sound and lighting (Julian Starr and Simisola Majekodunmi), allows for an immersive experience. Tom is perfectly on cue, miming or reacting to the noises invading his world: doors opening, phones ringing and dogs barking. Tom’s larger than life movements, directed by Gabrielle Moleta, swiping through the air to answer his phone, for instance, ironically render this world more realistic and the audience becomes ever more involved.

The lighting emits bold colours, framing specific scenes to provide structure. The stark colours invoke emotive responses: light blue streams onto the “tube”, a tranquilising calm before the storm; red flashes indicate the onset of panic; deep purple offers pathos when dark thoughts threaten to override his joy; an electric orange heralds the terror of the transformation.

The standard of Tom’s acting is high, carrying the play forward on his own. He adopts multiple roles to convey his mother and friend Dave, breaking up the lengthy monologue and injecting the performance with some light humour.

As sounds reverberate through the room and Tom welcomes us in, directing his gaze straight into the huddle of bodies below, there is an unnerving sense that we are not only in Tom’s world, but in Tom’s head. His gestures are over the top and inviting: every word he utters is extended through action. This is a beautiful exposition of the need for control over every aspect of life, conveying the obsessive nature of his illness. By the end, however, this is replaced by the frightening movements of the tiger released from inside him. However, it is in human form, rather than as a tiger, that Tom conveys the most debilitating qualities of his daily plight. The final scenes of the play are more confusing and jump between places without transition or clear explanation. Although this succeeds in conveying the tumult inside his head, it leaves the audience a little adrift.

Although spectacular make-up transforms Tom, the stripy orange tiger is less impressive than the honest and creative ways Tom finds to convey his mental health in the first half of the play. The powerful lines and relatable images will remain with the audience as they leave the theatre.

 

Reviewed by Amy Faulkner

Photography by  Sarah Hickson

 

RADA

Tiger Under the Skin

RADA Gielgud Theatre as part of Festival 19

 

 

 

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