ESCAPED ALONE

Coronet Theatre

★★★★

“the cast deliver wonderful performances that transcend language”

Immediately following their acclaimed, short run of “Uccellini (Little Birds)”, the avant-garde ‘Lacasadargilla’ and ‘Teatro Piccolo’ are back at The Coronet Theatre with their unique adaptation of Caryl Churchill’s “Escaped Alone”. As soon as the houselights fade, and Alessandro Ferroni’s music and soundscape drift through the semi-darkness, we know what sort of ride we are in for. Mellow strings that sound as though they are written for an early television sitcom collapse into discordant and sinister drones.

We find ourselves in a back garden, where three unnamed women, of a certain age, are gossiping; watched over by a fourth from behind a bottle-green artificial hedge. The artifice of Marco Rossi and Francesca Sgariboldi’s set is a deliberate ploy to merge the realism and surrealism that Churchill has intertwined in her 2016 play. Touches of Scissorhands’ suburbia enhance the dream-like isolation. The characters are living within a fable that is, at once, comfortable yet disturbing.

“Escaped Alone” combines neighbourly chit-chat with visions of doom-laden horror. Three friends are gossiping when a fourth woman wanders through the gap in the hedgerow; uninvited but unapologetically pulling up a chair to join them for afternoon tea. At first, she just observes, enjoying the banal and oblique non-sequiturs that pepper the conversation. It is all quite absurd, until the outsider (Mrs Jarrett – the only named character in this interpretation) uses some of the many pregnant pauses to launch into a monologue describing an evolving apocalyptic scenario. Each becoming more surreal as time passes. It is as though she represents the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, rolled into one eccentric pensioner. Meanwhile, the other three are wrapped up in their own concerns that are far from mundane. An exaggerated fear of cats competes with another’s anxiety and depression, while a husband killer sits in her deck chair sipping her tea. At one point they sing Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ in unison.

Not quite Theatre of the Absurd, it is dangerously close. But it is ingeniously staged, with a collective eye on the humour that this company are adept at bringing to the foreground. Like with ‘Uccellini”, it is spoken in Italian with English surtitles, and similarly we are presented with the dilemma of when to read the text or to focus on the stage – it is difficult to do both simultaneously. A large video screen that intermittently projects capitalism mocking adverts, or multi-corporate film trailers (presumably for extra political comment) would be better used – although not as visually pleasing – for the surtitles.

Nevertheless, the cast deliver wonderful performances that transcend language. Their movement and mannerisms often convey the meaning and emotions. The anonymity of the characters illustrates the ensemble nature of the piece. Caterina Carpio, Tania Garribba, Arianna Gaudio and Alice Palazzi seem to have a connection that puts them one step ahead of each other. And ahead of us. It is sometimes difficult to follow these characters and discover where they are going. The latter stems from the writing which, despite being classic Churchill, is too disconnected. The performances, however, bring the strands together brilliantly with a warmth of personality that relishes eccentricity. Anna Missaglia’s costumes are a delightfully bizarre array of colour and style, as though plundered from a charity shop during a nervous breakdown. Lisa Ferlazzo Natoli and Alessandro Ferroni share the director’s chair again, creating magic from mayhem with their eye-catching tableaux.

Social commentary is largely lost in translation, but the theatricality and the mundanity blend beautifully to create another special night out, courtesy of ‘Lacasadargilla’ – in the equally special Italian Renaissance style surroundings of Notting Hill’s Coronet Theatre.

ESCAPED ALONE

Coronet Theatre

Reviewed on 6th May 2026

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Masiar Pasquali

ESCAPED ALONE

★★★★

“deeply evocative and unpredictable”

Like a sighting of an unfamiliar bird out of its usual habitat, Italian playwright Rosalinda Conti’s “Uccellini (Little Birds)” is spotted hovering on the London theatre scene. It is a fragile creature, nocturnal and fleeting, delicately structured and fearful; but one that can surprise us with moments of ferocity if disturbed. The play exists in a twilight zone, somewhere between the heart of nature and the intellect; between the living and the land of ghosts. Nesting in the shadows of fairytales. It takes some concentration perhaps – performed in Italian with surtitles, making it difficult to focus on the stage and the translated dialogue at the same time – but the rewards are magical.

The setting is a woodland cottage, deep in the forest. Once a family home, it now echoes with ghosts of the past. A voiceover asks us to imagine the scene, as if Marco Rossi and Francesca Sgariboldi’s set wasn’t enough. An authentic, country kitchen lies behind a gossamer gauze, in constant half-light as the story drifts through the small hours and into the dawn. Shadow projections on the gauze, conceived by Alessandro Ferroni in collaboration with Malombra, lead us through the forest. Sometimes we are in the treetops, sometimes down in the fauna. Sometimes in the tangled and thorny briar that conceals a fabled castle. At other times it is smeared with raindrops, or with condensation, that tries to conceal truth. It is like we are watching; and not wanting to be seen.

Luka (Francesco Villano) has arrived with his girlfriend Anna (Petra Valentini). At midnight it will become Anna’s birthday. It seems an odd choice of celebration, especially with Anna’s severe fear of birds, and with the trepidation with which Luka revisits a house evidently filled with past traumas. The house, however, isn’t empty as they had expected. Luka’s brother Theo (Emiliano Masala) has preceded them and made himself at home. A fourth character is a constant presence; suspended in the air, and in the brothers’ minds: a twin sister, Matilda, whose mysterious disappearance and/or death haunts the cottage as much as their own memories.

The atmosphere is electric. Directors Alessandro Ferroni and Lisa Ferlazzo Natoli tease out the story, dropping little hints and discoveries for us to follow, like breadcrumbs to help us find our way back again. The three performances are deeply evocative and unpredictable. Valentini captures the fear of a caged bird one minute while giving the impression that it is, in fact, her own will that keeps her from flying away. Villano and Masala, as Luka and Theo, have an instinctive sibling chemistry. They each have their own version of the past. Differing perspectives that clash in a discord. Very occasionally there is harmony, but one wrong note can trigger surprising verbal viciousness.

The play has a unique style. It flirts with realism yet always remains fantastical and fanciful. It is playful but capricious, and we are never too sure which way it will turn. Slightly frustratingly, though, we never really learn of the true motives of these characters; nor is there any true resolve, and reasons are often left unexplained. Yet the freshness of the writing makes it feel spontaneous and real, as though we are witnessing the words for the first time. “Uccellini (Little Birds)” is a collaborative staging by the ‘Lacasadargilla Collective’ and ‘Teatro Vascello’. It has a definite devised feel to it, a touch unpolished, yet firmly rooted in Conti’s finely structured script. Avante-garde and whimsical, while being quite earthy at the same time. Like a little bird that refuses to settle for long, it is only here for a short run, but it is well worth catching while you can. An exotic joy to witness.

Tag Archives: Lacasadargilla

ESCAPED ALONE

★★★★

Coronet Theatre

ESCAPED ALONE

Coronet Theatre

★★★★

“the cast deliver wonderful performances that transcend language”