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Love in a Nutshell

Love in a Nutshell

★★★

Cockpit Theatre

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Love in a Nutshell

Love in a Nutshell

Cockpit Theatre

Reviewed – 11th March 2020

★★★

 

“Across all elements, there were moments that were wonderful throughout”

 

Xameleon Theatre presented an evening of nine short plays by Chekhov. The direction of the production (Dmitry Turchaninov) neatly linked each play to a theme of water; the set design (also by Turchaninov) emulated this by consisting of either a piece of blue squared silk laid on the floor in the first act, or white in the second, representing the different seasons. The play was entirely in Russian, with surtitles projected onto the back wall of the theatre (a note is given to those that do not speak Russian to sit in clear view of the surtitles at the beginning of the performance).

Turchaninov used this linking theme of water in order to transition between each separate story; different characters would approach the water and the narrator (Chekhov), performed by both Oleg Sidorchik and Vadim Bogdanov would announce the new setting. Whilst this was clear on occasion, Turchanivov’s decision to have two narrators was confusing, as this, alongside the rest of the cast, who were all also multirolling meant that it wasn’t quite clear when one story ended and another began; especially as on occasion stories would overlap for humour. This might have worked had the show been in English, but with an audience trying to decipher all of this at once, and it not be in English, it was challenging.

Standout performances were given by Irina Kara, as she portrayed a matchmaker who intended to set up a 50 year old man, Stychkin (Oleg Hill) who had very specific tastes despite insisting he was easy going. As they drank vodka on stage her notably odd laugh became more prominent, pulling a great deal of humour from the piece. However, despite being drunk, Kara managed to pull a poignancy out of her character when she matches herself with her co-protagonist.

Despite some performances being strong, the style of the production was confusing. In the final story, Ivan Vassilevich Lomov (Vadim Bogdanov) goes to propose to Natalia Stepanovna (Vlada Lemeshevska), who he cannot seem to stop arguing with. This piece bordered on an absurdist farce which, if emulated across the entire production, would have been a clear intention and might have been brilliant. However, it was disorientating to suddenly deliver an absurdist piece, with the other pieces being far more typically Chekhovian.

However, there was a flash of brilliance in a story about a pair ice-fishing, who don’t speak the same language and are increasingly frustrated with one another. A build up of tension and humour is developed before this suddenly ceased as Gryabov (Oleg Hill) jumps into the icy water. At this moment, the white silk sheet was lifted above Gryabov’s head and he was seen to be struggling in the cold water. In this moment Yuri Galkin’s lighting and sound design worked magic, allowing the whole atmosphere to go cold as the theatre was plummeted into a hazy blue and the sound of someone under water banging on the ice above played. This design alongside Turchaninov’s direction was beautifully realised.

Across all elements, there were moments that were wonderful throughout Love in a Nutshell, however an overall inconsistency of style and a confused layout made the production hard to follow.

 

Reviewed by Mimi Monteith

 

Love in a Nutshell

Cockpit Theatre until 13th March

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Bed Peace: The Battle Of Yohn & Joko | ★★★ | April 2019
Lysistrata | ★★ | June 2019
Much Ado About Not(h)Ing | ★★★ | June 2019
Alpha Who? | ★★★ | August 2019
Bombshells | ★★★½ | August 2019
The Ideal Woman | ★★ | August 2019
The Werewolf Of Washington Heights | ★★★★ | August 2019
Moth Hunting | ★★★★ | September 2019
The Last Act Of Harry Houdini | ★★★★ | October 2019
Iphigenia In Aulis | ★★★ | November 2019

 

Click here to see our most recent reviews

 

Lòng Mẹ

★★★★

VAULT Festival 2020

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Lòng Mẹ

Lòng Mẹ

Pit – The Vaults

Reviewed – 3rd March 2020

★★★★

 

“This humour with subtextual glints of trauma was brilliantly realised and effortlessly portrayed”

 

As the title indicates, Lòng Mẹ translates from Vietnamese to English to mean ‘Mother’s Soul’. VanThanh Productions presented its titled theme gracefully with two very different stories, cathartically linked to recognise the power of ancestry and give insight into Vietnamese heritage.

As the audience were sitting down, Tuyen Do and Michael Phong Le sat on the minamilistic set and called on the audience, welcoming them in and asking them to sit down, all the while speaking in thick Vietnamese accents. Comments such as ‘You sir, you so handsome, come sit at the front’ induced humour from the stereotype and set a light hearted tone in the theatre. This quality was emulated throughout the production, acting as a powerful juxtaposition to the heart-breaking stories which unfolded.

Tuyen Do’s story was told through a masterclass in voice acting. Do seamlessly glided from a thick Vietnamese accent to a London accent as she portrayed both herself and her mother simultaneously in conversation. This allowed for a strong, punchy insight to her struggle to relate to her mother due to growing up with two opposing cultures at the same time. As she told the story of this relationship, beautiful and traumatising anecdotes including the hiding of gold bars in dead chickens, so that they might be able to trade on the black market during the Vietnam war, were both awe inspiring and funny. But the mood was quickly turned when we are told of her family’s citizenship being stripped due to fighting on the American side during the Vietnam war. This humour with subtextual glints of trauma was brilliantly realised and effortlessly portrayed.

Phong Le’s story was similar to Do’s in that it focused on the struggle of relating to a different generation, brought up during a very different time. However, Do’s story fixated more prominently on the ‘constant internal conflict’ of his coming to terms with his Vietnamese heritage, when he was brought up in the contrasting culture of the UK countryside. Phong Le’s performance was honest and delivered with a gentleness which worked beautifully. His ability to portray himself as a small child, through to being an adolescent and then an adult worked brilliantly as he told a story about his mother going to prison and his own questioning surrounding the incident with a raw innocence.

Mingyu Lin’s direction allowed the pair to transition between stories with simple dance sequences, this seemed a little unnecessary as an attempt to create a link between the two and a distraction from the honest conversations each performer gave. However, Lin’s direction shone through Phong Le’s performance; as he clutched a Rubik’s cube throughout the show, highlighting his naivety to his surroundings; it was clear that Lin’s attention to detail was meticulous here and that a great deal of thought had gone into it.

The production as a whole was awe inspiring, only let down by the unnecessary measures taken to link performances which would have stood strong and linked easily without them.

 

Reviewed by Mimi Monteith

 

 

VAULT Festival 2020

 

 

Click here to see all our reviews from VAULT Festival 2020