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Sex / Crime – 4 Stars

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Crime

Sex / Crime

The Glory

Reviewed – 12th April 2018

★★★★

“a fascinating and well-crafted insight”

 

In a “lovely basement” (correction: “lovely dungeon”) B has paid A a large of amount of money to recreate one of the famous gay serial killer’s murders, with B as the victim. “I’m going to hurt you,” promises A. “Promise me you’ll make me forget who I am,” retorts B. B has a pain threshold of eight and three quarters and has taken all his drugs on the bus. He is not only a fan of the gay serial killer but “an admirer” and he knows every case in perfect detail. But A has insider knowledge. However expectations collide and the two have to decide how far they are willing to go. As the situation simmers, the session makes a U-turn.

This play is a fascinating and well-crafted insight into a taboo part of the fetish scene, questioning the boundaries between pleasure and pain and revealing the extremities of sado-masochism. It is a nuanced and non-stereotyped approach, which deals in real people and real desires without judgement, whilst still delivering a dramatic and intelligent narrative structure. Alexis Gregory’s writing is darkly funny, and successfully addresses his focuses for this show, fetishisation and ‘gay’ serial killers – “we never say ‘heterosexual serial killers’ do we?” asks Gregory in the programme.

Both Alexis Gregory (also the playwright) as B and Jonny Woo as A, deliver fantastic performances. Gregory has a manic energy onstage, somehow infectiously likeable. There is a wonderful juxtaposition between his excitement and the context in which we find him. Woo is cold, professional and apparently impenetrable. They play off each other fantastically, antitheses of each other in many ways, the balance of power tipping between them in a delicate build of tension.

There is a stylised quality to Gregory’s writing style, which works fantastically in the first half of the play but makes the empathy necessary in the second part harder to muster as an audience member. The play lags at this point as a result of this and the change lacks some believability, and the underlying darkness could have been pushed further at this middle point.

The set (Robbie Butler) is wrapped in white plastic and littered with implements of pain and/or pleasure, hammers and full syringes, and is enhanced by Mike Robertson’s lighting design, which reinvents the space over and over as time passes. With loud sounds punctuating sudden blackouts, the violence is well done – not shied away from, but also not gratuitous.

This is a well crafted, well written piece about a topic that is frequently categorised as taboo, delivered by two excellent performers.

 

Reviewed by Amelia Brown

Photography by Jane Hobson

 

The Glory London

Sex / Crime

The Glory until 28th April

 

Related
Also directed by Robert Chevara
Vincent River | ★★★★ | Park Theatre | March 2018

 

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Now I am Alone thespyinthestalls

Now I Am Alone

Bread & Roses Theatre

Opening Night – 5th July 2017

 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

“If you love Shakespeare I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy this piece”

 

This one-man show devised by Dori Engel and Nick Hutchinson is now open for a short run at the Bread and Roses Theatre. The play runs for 50 minutes and explores the outsiders of many of Shakespeare’s plays, in an attempt to shed light and comment on some of his viewpoints found in his writing.

Now I Am Alone thespyinthestalls

It begins with Dori Engel sitting on the stage as the audience enters in what appears to be his dressing room. This pre-show performance sees him going through his lines, and chatter starts to fill the space but not from the audience. We start to hear voices from many of Shakespeare’s famous plays, the noise gets louder and louder as it starts to fill the space, as it does Dori springs into action. He throws his script into the air out of frustration from trying to learn the words on the page. He then breaks out into a series of monologues, whilst swapping from one Shakespeare character to another.

Now I Am Alone thespyinthestalls

The set (Melanie Lombard) is minimal and is an over embellished changing room for Dori Engel to use, which did little to add to the characters to be shown on stage. The lighting (Mike Robertson) however is used to great effect to show the changes to Dori’s characters, a simple yet smart way to keep the audience in tune with the roundabout of shifting personas.

Hutchinson’s directing utilised the space to the limits of its potential allowing Dori to fully own the space as he moved around it. There is a a high level of skill on show when delivering Shakespeare’s complex and poetic language, you can tell that Engel and Hutchinson are big fans of Shakespeare’s work. You really feel the understanding that he has for the words he is speaking, even if you struggle to understand them yourself. The development of characters could have been more in-depth, and at times I couldn’t help but feel the performance was lacking in intensity and energy.

Now I Am Alone thespyinthestalls

I struggled to understand what the play was trying to achieve, and found it difficult to connect with. This play is one that needs a certain level of knowledge of Shakespeare’s work. At times, the play is witty and full of humour, and begins to show the darker side of the Shakespearian mind and if you love Shakespeare I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy this piece, if not, best to keep it at arm’s length.

 

Reviewed by JP

Photography by Gerard Allon 

 

Bread & Roses thespyinthestalls

Now I am Alone

is at The Bread & Roses Theatre until 8th July

 

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