“The talent and skill involved in making I Remember is unquestionable”
As part of Litmus Fest, The Loumgair Collective presents I Remember, a deeply personal account of one woman’s experience of Asperger’s Syndrome told through spoken word and musical accompaniment. A love letter which charts her journey from diagnosis to the current day, this piece attempts to explore a much misunderstood condition and the people who face it.
The work undoubtedly has fantastic potential. There is an admirable clarity of focus in how Loumgair has approached this work. The use of the soundscape is particularly impressive; it slowly builds to a cacophony of abstract sounds that bombard the audience (ear plugs are provided on arrival if it gets too much). Not only does it suit the mood, but as a device, it nicely reflects the multitude of untranslatable stimuli that someone with the condition may have to deal with. The performance is eloquent and earnest, Georgina Norie is a confident performer and the care and respect for each syllable is clear even when competing with the growing crescendo.
My concern is that as a piece of theatre, it remains a difficult piece to engage with. The spoken-word is rhythmic and lyrical but offers little variation in tone or sentiment. While impassioned, it is repetitive and what starts off as charming, is in danger of becoming monotonous.
Despite this, I think this is a piece that is worth sticking with. An excellent example of what Litmus Fest is about – work with a strong agenda that requires support and development, incorporating multiple disciplines. The talent and skill involved in making I Remember is unquestionable and I will be interested to see its next incarnation.
“with some further development has the potential to become a thought-provoking and complex piece of theatre”
Litmus Fest is the Pleasance Theatre Trust’s research and development festival. Now in its second year, it is the launch pad for six brand new shows over six days. Close Up, is one of those shows.
Devised and performed by Odd Eyes Theatre Company (Emilia Teglia, Tina Rath, Andrew Goddard and Leila Nashif), Close Up is a multi-media production which explores the changing face of censorship and what it means in Western society today. It tells the story of Clive Boon, a 1960s Polari speaking comedian and the overnight success of Grace, a lady of advancing years who becomes involved in a fly on the wall documentary about sex and relationships in the 21st century.
The character of Grace dreams of standing out and gaining notoriety; she has an outstanding personality but this results in many of her relationships breaking down. The actor, Tina Rath, plays this well. She gives Grace a dual personality of vigour and sensitivity, which is endearing for the audience to watch and I would be interested to see where they take this character.
The story of Clive Boon, played by Andrew Goddard, felt slightly contrived and not quite fully developed which is somewhat to be expected in this work in progress setting. Boon appears to be a comedian who has a comedy act on the television. This story is however, unclear; the idea of Polari slang and the connection that it has with censorship is an interesting concept as the basis for a performance, but would need to be fleshed out a bit in order for the audience to understand the connection between Boon and the narrative as a whole.
The stage was minimal but used both film and photography to show some, perhaps rather invasive, images of Grace together with black and white footage of Clive Boon performing his comedy routine. Both these elements rendered themselves nicely to the performance. Zanep Dagli, Close Up’s visual designer and filmmaker, added more texture to the performance by adopting a multimedia approach; it created another layer of theatricality to the performance. It also constantly confronted the audience with questions about the idea of censorship and what we are shown on television and through social media. The use of film and photography is a dynamic way of foregrounding the issues being addressed in Close Up and once developed and polished further could really lift the performance.
At its core, Close Up brings interesting questions to the forefront; why is it that what was previous ‘forbidden’ in the media is now being glorified and glamourised? Does censorship protect us, or limit our freedom of speech and creativity? These ideas are provocative but the story line that carries them is not yet coherent enough and lacks clarity. However, the audience did get a flavour of the staging, characters and fundamental idea of the piece, that with some further development has the potential to become a thought-provoking and complex piece of theatre.
