Maurizio Martorana Archives - thespyinthestalls.com

Dadderrs / In a Way so Brutal

The Yard Theatre

Reviewed – 22nd January 2020

Dadderrs ★★★ In a Way so Brutal ★★★★

“This is an intensely theatrical evening, but it is stretching the definition of theatre, to the extent that you might well question it”

Just occasionally (I’ve only done it once before in my two and a half years reviewing for Spy in the Stalls) an assignment demands that I step out of the traditional anonymity assigned to the critic; last night’s double bill at The Yard was one such evening. This is visceral work that wants our involvement. And though, yes, there are elements of ‘audience participation’, that isn’t really what I mean. I mean, in LIFE. It is work that shouts, ‘BE ACTIVE. GET INVOLVED. THINK. QUESTION. LIVE.’ I’ll be turning 50 in a few months time, and was definitely one of the oldies in the audience, and I left feeling invigorated and excited by the creative possibilities being explored by these contemporary makers, even if not everything was to my taste. This is an intensely theatrical evening, but it is stretching the definition of theatre, to the extent that you might well question it. Is this theatre? Or is it performance art? Whatever your answer might be, it’s mighty refreshing to be made to think about it!

First up is Dadderrs, performed by husband and wife team – or husband and husband/wife team, as they introduce themselves – Daniel Oliver and Frauke Requardt. It isn’t a play, so much as a happening, akin to the work of 1960s performance artists, both here and across the Atlantic, and it combines many elements beloved of that period – nudity, paint, surreal costume, haze, audience involvement, singing and an otherworldly soundscape (credit here to Steve Blake’s terrific work). Frauke and Daniel invite us into their marriage, and into an uninhibited, intimate, honest, playful, shame-free world of their devising – the Meadowdrome. Daniel is dyspraxic and Frauke has ADHD, and the piece plays with their different tempos; in so doing, it invites us to think about difference, and how harmony can be found there. Ultimately, it is a piece about love. Spoken by an audience member and left hanging in the air as the stage is plunged back into the soundless dark, love is the very last word. Love.

Coming back into the space after the interval, it’s clear that we’re about to witness a very different spectacle with In a Way so Brutal. (It’s also clear why the interval overran by 20 minutes!) The level of art and artifice has stepped up a gear, and we are presented with a stunning (and also seriously tongue in cheek) living picture. Eirini Kartsaki is posed like a Botticelli, all curvy flesh and flowing tresses, but…her nipples are suction-cupped with plastic, and there are Sarah Lucas-like stuffed stocking shapes adorning the ‘set’. Tasos Stamou’s table of sonic wizardry is lit up like a miniature futuristic cityscape, and Stamou himself produces sound as a chemist produces psychedelics. Quite apart from the exceptional music he was making, watching him work was hypnotic. Kartsaki is a powerful presence on stage, both visually and vocally. Although the words themselves seemed curiously ‘retro-shock’ to me, the combined visual, sonic and aural sense assault ended up seducing me with its fierce and sexy punk energy. And seduction by theatre is never a bad thing.

The Yard’s Now festival is billed as ‘the festival of the best theatre for right Now’. Whether or not you agree will arguably depend on what your experience of ‘right now’ is. If the status quo suits, this evening won’t be for you; if not, it might well be exactly the joyful, anarchic fix you’re crying out for.

Reviewed by Rebecca Crankshaw

Photography by Maurizio Martorana

Dadderrs / In a Way so Brutal

The Yard Theatre until 25th January as part of Now 20

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Hotter Than A Pan | ★★★★ | January 2019

Plastic Soul | ★★★★ | January 2019

A Sea Of Troubles | ★★★★★ | February 2019

Cuteness Forensics | ★★½ | February 2019

Sex Sex Men Men | ★★★★★ | February 2019

To Move In Time | ★★½ | February 2019

Ways To Submit | ★★★★ | February 2019

Armadillo | ★★★★ | June 2019

Dirty Crusty | ★★★★ | November 2019

Pecsmas | ★★★★★ | December 2019

Click here to see our most recent reviews

★★★★

“as completely random and unexpected as it is, it makes me inexplicably happy”

I feel slightly ill-equipped to properly appraise a show that employs so many different contrivances. Dirty Crusty, written by Clare Barron, begins with a plain white origami doll’s house lit from within, accompanied by a voice-over conversation between house mates. Jeanine (Akiya Henry) then appears on the upper stage followed by Victor (Douggie McMeekin) both of whom are holding giant CBBC style microphones. They deliver their conversation half facing the audience, a giant glowing moon projected behind them, and then suddenly they break in to song. They then clamber down to the main set, cast off their microphones and resume a sort of normal narrative.

I say ‘sort of’ because Jay Miller’s direction goes on to use (amongst other things) dance, voice-over narration, another musical number, and strange employment of time. Scenes in entirely different venues, often on different days, overlap: Jeanine and Victor are entangled in bed as Synda (Abiona Omonua) starts her dance class with Jeanine, and vice versa, as Victor initiates conversations about sex fantasies with Jeanine in his flat, whilst Jeanine and Synda are still dancing together in Synda’s rehearsal space.

But whilst the production itself attempts to animate the audience’s disbelief in a myriad of ways, the dialogue and its delivery are painstakingly true to life. Jeanine is thirty-one, and she’s at a difficult juncture. Feeling she hasn’t achieved enough for her age, she looks for ways to improve herself and expand her experiences. She tries to be sexually bolder with her (sort of) boyfriend Victor, and she decides to take up ballet lessons with dance teacher Synda. Her relationships with both are complicated. Sometimes they feed her enthusiasm and sometimes they crush it. Many of the conversations are so close to the real thing that it seems near impossible that they should be scripted. McMeekin’s delivery in particular – every hesitation, every stress – paints such a whole character, full of flaws and good intentions. This seems to be Barron’s particular expertise, having created similarly dimensional characters in her previous work, Dance Nation.

The stage (as designed by Emma Bailey) is built like a wide-set puppet show box, with heavy curtains concealing different sets: One is Victor’s flat, with meticulous Muji furniture; another, Synda’s sparse room, with not much more than a yoga mat for decoration. And a third, hidden for most of the story, is Jeanine’s clothes-covered mess of a hoarder’s room. The ever opening and closing curtains, along with all the other quirky production devices, provide a dream-like quality to the story, somehow magnifying the dialogue’s nuance and conviction.

But just when you think the plot has settled into a more conventional rhythm, (slight spoiler coming up, my apologies) the show ends with a children’s ballet recital- like, actual children ballet dancing. But as completely random and unexpected as it is, it makes me inexplicably happy. And that summary might be applied to the entire play: Completely random, but it makes me inexplicably happy.

Reviewed by Miriam Sallon

Photography by Maurizio Martorana

The Yard Theatre

Reviewed – 22nd January 2020

Dadderrs ★★★ In a Way so Brutal ★★★★

“This is an intensely theatrical evening, but it is stretching the definition of theatre, to the extent that you might well question it”

Reviewed by Rebecca Crankshaw

Photography by Maurizio Martorana

Dadderrs / In a Way so Brutal

The Yard Theatre until 25th January as part of Now 20

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

The Yard Theatre

Reviewed – 28th October 2019

★★★★

“as completely random and unexpected as it is, it makes me inexplicably happy”

Reviewed by Miriam Sallon

Photography by Maurizio Martorana

Dirty Crusty

The Yard Theatre until 20th November

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue: