★★★★

“a heart-warming story with an unexpected ending”

Three black walls, a black floor, a running machine and a giant exercise ball. One remarkable solo writer-performer. That’s what it takes to make one heck of a show at Reading Rep.

Harriet Madeley is an award-winning writer, actor, producer and co-director of the theatre company Crowded Room which ‘specialises in true stories that get people talking’. Mid-way through writing a new play about death – the subject no-one wants to talk about that we have all but airbrushed out of our lives – the wheel of fate took an unexpected turn. Madeley was diagnosed with a rare and chronic disease called Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC). The condition, which attacks the liver and bile ducts, affects around seven in every million in the UK. Life expectancy of sufferers can be as short as ten years and there is, as yet, no cure.

On stage Harriet Madeley becomes a ditsy journalist called Olive who must recruit interviewees for an article about terminal illness. When Olive finds herself similarly diagnosed, her own life unravels in a rapidly descending spiral of laugh out loud comic moments. She even wonders whether her own death could become her own best career break yet.

The show does not flag for a second as Madeley interacts with recordings and delivers a series of reflective monologues on her condition. As those around her struggle to accept her fate and she goes off at a very unexpected tangent, we get to know Olive’s fiancée, parents and friends in a heart-warming story with an unexpected ending.

With simple and effective video and lighting by Megan Lucas, sound by Bella Kear and some smart direction from Madelaine Moore, this thought provoking new play more than merits its Summerhall Lustrum Award for Unforgettable Theatre. It is a warm and life-enhancing version of the performer’s own terminal diagnosis story and deserves to run and run.

THE ICE AT THE END OF THE WORLD at the Omnibus Theatre

★★★★

“Madelaine Moore’s direction is assured, moving with suave authority”

The Ice at the End of the World is chilling in the best way possible. Seldom in the theatre have I needed to squeeze someone’s hand quite so frequently. The lady next to me was very understanding. Luckily, I’d brought her with me. For seventy five minutes, we are aboard a tall ship, and taken on its eerie and highly unsettling excursion into the Arctic Circle.

We follow a small group of artists, who have been selected to undertake this really quite dangerous and not-just-for-giggles journey for the sake of their art. Their inspiration is ‘life at the end of the world’ (although this detail is not entirely clear). But the further north they go, the more disturbed things become. By the end of the piece, it is assuredly a cosmic horror, which harnesses both alien terror and a mythological morality tale concerning climate change and the arrogance of the human race.

The first thing that should be complimented is the superb plethora of non-verbal material here. Lighting (Megan Lucas) and Sound Design (Russell Ditchfield) work in compelling symbiosis. The axiom of this show is ‘we do not take the journey; the journey takes us.’ Thus, the actors weave between dialogue and protean physical theatre, cultivating the eerie unreality of life aboard a ship – maddeningly claustrophobic within the vast entrapment of the sea. Silhouettes, voiceovers, dance, and more, meld seamlessly, conjuring the other-worldly enchantments of the journey north.

Madelaine Moore’s direction is assured, moving with suave authority, and allowing its non-dialogic elements to taunt and threaten. They express the ineffable and erotic temptations of nature, especially as the ice melts, revealing the untamed potential of the uncivilised Earth, which demands something in return for the damage we have unthinkingly wreaked upon her.

The cast is brilliant as the four-person crew of eccentrics. Laura (Judith Amsenga), who functions as Nature’s tour guide of the Arctic Circle, is commanding and unhinged in terrifyingly equal measure. Eleanor Dillon-Reams is captivating as Alys, the sort-of protagonist, and a translator of Finnish poetry – of course, she is herself, a former, failed poet. Katy Schutte (who is also the writer, deserving of its own commendation) and Gian Carlo Ferrini are also excellent, and their characters complement the piece throughout.

This piece of theatre – I’m loath to call it but a play – is, at its core, a theatrical argument between Mother Nature and the human race: It is a battle of ego. Alongside, there is a recurring conceit devolving the nature and origin of genius. Here, genius manifests as an attendant demon that threatens to possess its human vessel completely. This idea looms throughout, posing some wonderful philosophical knots for the journey home.

A word used in the piece is ‘unsettling’: it is the perfect word with which to consider this play. We are unsettled constantly: by the movement of the ship, and by the evasive and disturbing chain of events.

If I had any criticisms, it would be that a discussion of queerness feels a little shoehorned in and lacking in sufficient development. I’d also say that some of the more abstract physical theatre was perhaps introduced too early to deliver its full effect. But I am nit-picking.

The Ice at the End of the World is endlessly resourceful. Its lens is panpsychist, probing the boundaries of consciousness and power, and flirting with the liminal spaces between Human and Nature, and where Art disrupts these fabrics. It is also a warning: a warning that the planet will avenge its destruction at the hands of human beings; a warning that the permanence of the Earth will forever haunt the exploits of mere mortals, no matter what their contributions. There’s also some really cool stuff with ice bears. I could not recommend this show enough.

Tag Archives: Megan Lucas

OUTPATIENT

★★★★

Reading Rep Theatre

OUTPATIENT at Reading Rep Theatre

★★★★

“a heart-warming story with an unexpected ending”

OUTPATIENT at Reading Rep Theatre

Reviewed on 17th October 2024

by David Woodward

Photography by Harry Elletson

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING OSCAR | ★★★★★ | May 2024

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE | ★★★★★ | December 2023

SHAKESPEARE’S R&J | ★★★★ | October 2023

HEDDA GABLER | ★★★★★ | February 2023

DORIAN | ★★★★ | October 2021

OUTPATIENT

OUTPATIENT

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page

THE ICE AT THE END OF THE WORLD

★★★★

Omnibus Theatre

THE ICE AT THE END OF THE WORLD at the Omnibus Theatre

★★★★

“Madelaine Moore’s direction is assured, moving with suave authority”