Breathe, written and directed by Lucrezia Pollice, tells the story of Maria, an aspiring writer in her twenties, who spends her days working in a cafe and battling her mental health issues. The play takes place in the flat which Maria shares with her friends, Eddie and Rachel. There’s also Maria’s troubled friend, Sophie, who, to the annoyance of Eddie and Rachel, frequently crashes at the flat. The play centres around the relationships between Eddie, Rachel, and Maria, in particular how Eddie and Rachel deal with Maria’s depression, anxiety, and panic attacks.
The acting is good overall. Peter Silva (Eddie) and Olivia Valler-Feltham (Rachel) are convincing as the well-meaning, but exhausted housemates trying to help their self-destructive friend. Zoe Templeman-Young (Maria) gives an authentic performance as a young woman battling her demons. Tamzin Murray plays Maria’s brash and irritating friend, Sophie, and does an admirable job with this difficult character.
Unfortunately, the audience missed a great deal of the acting as it was often difficult to see the actors. Much of the action takes place on a sofa towards the front of the stage which, unless you are in the front row, is very difficult to see.
The best part about Breathe is the story. Stories about mental health often focus on the impact on families or partners – it is less common to see a story like this, one about the effect on housemates and friends. Unfortunately, the original concept is not enough to make this a strong script. The dialogue is, for the most part, natural and engaging, but there’s a lack of structure which makes it difficult to follow the story.
Another element which lets down the thought-provoking story is the lighting and sound. Many scenes are extremely short and almost all end with a jarring blackout. This, coupled with the use of projections, make the play feel more like a short film than a piece of theatre. That being said, there are instances where the projections work well and add to the story, but the style is inconsistent, which is distracting. As for the music, the songs chosen seem to have no clear connection to the story. Sometimes it seems as if the music is intended to show the passage of time, for example several Christmas songs are played towards the end, but no mention of Christmas is made by the characters.
Overall, this is a promising script with a capable cast; the structure and staging simply need more work to make it the play the story deserves.
“this piece has the potential to quickly become a powerful, heartbreaking performance”
It is with a heavy heart that I write this review. Aisha deals with a topic area that is horrific. It is a subject area, we tactfully forget or at least I do – underage arranged marriages. Aisha is 14 when she is sold to her distant cousin to marry. Rape, slavery and torture became part of Aisha’s life the moment she was sold. ‘He burnt all my clothes the first week I lived here,’ Aisha discloses to us. He wanted for her to have no possessions of her own, but she often refers to her husband as her ‘possessor’. As you may think, this is far from a willing marriage. Thus, the topic area is heavy. It is frightening and it is heartbreaking. But I felt this play’s attempt to open this Pandora’s box was only satisfactory.
With the right tweaks; changes in direction, characters and at parts the scripts, this piece has the potential to quickly become a powerful, heartbreaking performance. The way this topic deserves to be executed. Aisha needed to take it even further. It needed to become a reflection for us, the audience, we who quietly sit as witnesses to the monstrosities unfolding before our very eyes. At times, in this piece you could see through the actor’s actions. They were at times stiff and lacked intention. However, the intimacy of the Hen and Chickens theatre worked perfectly for the impact this piece aimed to achieve.
With a fantastically detailed set we are transported into this hellish world. We are often left with a sense of helplessness, heartbreak as we intently listen to Laura Adebisi’s heartfelt and emotional monologues. Aisha is Laura’s debut professional Theatre role and this young actress shows much promise. She beautifully and tragically played this abused young girl. Most of the time, I was left in sadness and pain as Laura spoke with such poetic detail about the abuse she had had to endure for three years. This performance was a mammoth task for Laura, she is present at all times and never once did I believe she was anyone else but Aisha. Admittedly, there were moments which needed refining, but I cannot commend enough Laura’s performance in tackling such a complex and difficult character.
Likewise, Sabrina Richmond as Aisha’s mother brought a complex and beautifully tragic performance before our very eyes. I say tragic because of the relationship Aisha and her mother depicted on stage. These moments between them had moments of love, but not the love we often see on stage. This was much more complex because her mom essentially sells Aisha off to her ‘possessor’ in marriage. But, by the end of the piece I could understand why a mother could do this to their daughter; however barbaric it may seem.
Fear could have been pushed further and really impact us, if the character of Aisha’s Husband was better cast. For such a difficult, complex and monstrous character; the performance of Ayo Oyelakin left me with much more to be desired. I could see in his performance that he still felt awkward at playing such a monstrous person. His performance lacked depth, truth and dare I say a human quality. The moment the actor entered on stage, he lacked the presence of a possessor; of a human being capable of committing acts as he has previously been described by Aisha. A massive turn off.
I would also like to celebrate Lloyd Morris and Olivia Valler-Feltham’s performances. Lloyd as Mr. White and Olivia as the Support Worker. On stage we compare Lloyd’s performance to Ayo as the possessor and I feel as though the roles should have been reserved. The subtlety Lloyd brought to his character Mr. White really left me wanting more. In a positive way.
Oliva on the other hand did fantastically well with what she was given and unfortunately it wasn’t much by that of the script. As for what the character represented within this piece I am unsure. What comment was the director making, when the support worker disclosed to Aisha (her client) that she too had been abused by a priest? This was for me an unforgivable sin committed by this piece. This character, in my opinion, was really misused.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only one. Alexander Lincoln’s performance of Dr Valge was satisfactory. It felt like his character was being awkwardly used in an attempt to lift the atmosphere. Unnecessary. My opinion aside, the comedic relief Dr Valge was offering wasn’t the medicine we needed. His part it wasn’t done with the conviction it needed and too many problems arose in my mind with the writing and direction.
Aisha was a difficult piece to watch; regrettably, not only because of the suffering on stage. A play like this needed to make me leave the theatre seriously thinking about Aisha’s story and the 15 million girls a year married as children. Sadly, I didn’t.
