Katy Owen Archives - Page 4 of 4 - thespyinthestalls.com

★★★

“a charming snapshot of a unique point in history wherein the concept of ‘connection’ was redefined”

A verbatim play based on the true story of a lone phone booth situated in the middle of the Mojave Desert in 1990s North America, Citizen Band Radio’s play Mojave follows Godfrey ‘Doc’ Daniels on his journey to discover this strange landmark. The play opens on the phone box in question covered in a white sheet, against which a stylised desert is projected. These projections, combined with the live DJ-ed music, do well at plunging us into the action from the very start of the piece and continue to do so throughout. The setting of the nineties is important and rightly emphasised through radio interviews, music excerpts and a particularly commendable audio-visual presentation to show the evolution of a website at a time when the internet started to come into its own.

A disadvantage that can arise with verbatim theatre is in the structuring of the play – life doesn’t tend to conform to a standard three-act format after all – and there are certainly moments where Mojave feels a little too still, plotwise. The story starts strong with a focus on Doc. A fantastically choreographed movement piece reveals the monotony of his daily life and the way in which his obsession with the phone booth leaks into it. As it continues, however, the choreography starts to feel more like padding put in to lengthen the running time. The second half of the play consists largely of a montage of different calls to and from the booth and, though at first interesting, sloppy transitions combined with a stagnant plot line steadily work to undo the immersion that the first half of the play has done so well to create.

In spite of this, the ensemble works well at multi-roling a whole host of different characters. They switch smoothly, even when shifting between accents (Scottish, French, German, American) at speed. The dialogue, lifted from transcripts of Doc’s recordings and phone calls made to and from the booth, lend an interesting and unusual form of realism to the play; not realism in the harsh or brutalistic sense, but something softer and more comfortable to observe. The cast reliably hit their comedic beats and the moments of awkward interaction between strangers on a phone line are especially well executed. It is with this relaxed and humourous tone that the play manages to offer a charming snapshot of a unique point in history wherein the concept of ‘connection’ was redefined.

Reviewed by Katy Owen

Photography courtesy Citizens Band Radio

The Noises

Old Red Lion Theatre

Reviewed – 4th April 2019

★★★★

“delves into an abstracted perspective on very human issues, and is likely to be different from anything you have seen before”

The first thing you will notice about The Noises – a new play brought to The Old Red Lion Theatre by mother-daughter duo Jacqueline Saphra (writer) and Tamar Saphra (director) – is its main character, a dog named Luna. Shut inside a room by her owners her odd, defamiliarised speech is fascinating and hilarious; she calls sex “rump and grunty” and her owners “ma”, “pa” and “my Ellie girl”. She details all those strange things we know dogs do, from re-devouring a partially thrown up chicken (described in delightfully gruesome detail) to hiding one of every pair of shoes owned by various members of the house. Then there is her physicality, designed by movement director Louise Kempton and executed with impressive economical precision by Amy McAllister. The slight vibration of McAllister’s legs and bottom to suggest a wagging tail, the whine in her voice as she demands things from her owner, and an occasional growl are all particularly reminiscent to us dog owners of our own pets. Luna never delves too far into an animal reenactment – she doesn’t shuffle around on all fours as a child might – but there is just enough there to show us that she is not human.

The production begins with an audio description of the set, and special mention must be made to audio description and access consultants Jenni Elbourne and Amelia Cavallo for their work to make the show accessible for the visually impaired. The audio description itself adds to the show and experience, because so much of the play centres around Tom Parkinson’s sound design. Whilst the set is a single “room” with worn lino floor, a cracked ceiling and a single door stage-let, ‘The Noises’ themselves give a sense of the wider world beyond the door. At first these noises are familiar to Luna – a family argument, footsteps, a car outside – but as the play progresses they grow into something more frightening, until eventually they invade the set and even split the ceiling apart!

Thus we move from an amusing depiction of the inner workings of a dog’s mind to a deeper exploration of courage, fear and what it means to be ‘good’. Luna’s connection with the audience, looking us directly in the eye as she teaches us and tells her stories, means we find ourselves reconsidering our own outlooks. This play may revolve around a dog’s perspective, but it delves into an abstracted perspective on very human issues, and is likely to be different from anything you have seen before.

Camden People’s Theatre

Reviewed – 12th April 2019

★★★

“a charming snapshot of a unique point in history wherein the concept of ‘connection’ was redefined”

Reviewed by Katy Owen

Photography courtesy Citizens Band Radio

Mojave

Camden People’s Theatre

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Old Red Lion Theatre

Reviewed – 4th April 2019

★★★★

“delves into an abstracted perspective on very human issues, and is likely to be different from anything you have seen before”

Reviewed by Katy Owen

Photography by Ali Wright

The Noises

Old Red Lion Theatre until 20th April

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue: