Omnibus Theatre Archives - Page 3 of 14

Fiji

Omnibus Theatre

Reviewed – 20th November 2019

★★★★★

“Whether you want a thought-inducing challenge or a good belly laugh – Fiji is well worth your time”

Preparing to slaughter and eat a person for mutual pleasure and fulfilment is a fundamentally awkward affair, when you think about it. And Edward Stone, Pedro Leandro and Evan Lordan have really thought about it. Fiji, written by the trio and directed by Lordan, is inspired loosely by the story of Armin Meiwes who, in 2001, famously ate a willing volunteer in Germany – Fiji is not a retelling but is more of an admiring sequel to Armin’s story. Nick (Stone) and Sam (Leandro) meet online to consume and be consumed in Croydon (of all places) – but the story becomes a sort of charming rom-com with cannibalistic horror stuffed into its deep crevices.

Sam has travelled to Nick’s flat so that Nick can eat his entire body over two weeks – there’s no secret or mystery about their intentions which adds a pregnant, awful and comic irony to every scene. Little occurs as the two go through a crescendoing weekend together, knowing that it will only culminate cannibally. Intertwined with these two days of getting-to-know-you talk, is Sam and Nick’s final conversation which is split up and scattered through earlier scenes. In this last conversation, they each answer a series of questions designed to foster and build intimacy through vulnerability – with the answers as poignant interludes in a show which otherwise has the energy of How I Met Your Other cut with America’s Most Wanted.

Stone, Leandro and Lordan thread the needle expertly with their dialogue and the characters it conjures. The joking, banter and affection of cannibal and his future meal have great poise and keep the relationship grounded and relatable. It’s not horrific, but equally, it’s not especially sentimental. Standing as a testament to the cleverness of the writers was one strange moment – when Sam fled just before the butcher’s knife, instead of celebrating, one audience member cooed with disappointment and heartbreak that the characters had fallen out!

The set is simple with plain white chairs and a table making up the canvas. A little prop comedy wasn’t below the threesome with a box full of meat cleavers and paring knives being used to tease out a few extra laughs. The lighting choices help to separate out the jokes and dating of Sam and Nick’s ‘normal’ conversation from their intimate question answering. Humble choices in the set and lighting design help to keep the characters in focus and give the show a deserved grown-up feel.

This cheeky little play asks you to laugh at the point where the horrific meets the banal. When you ask a man-eater if he’s vegetarian or refer to someone as the ‘Obama of Cannibals’ it’s clear that we’re already in a very strange and a very original place. The characters are loveable and fun – Edward Stone’s performance is the foundation, but Pedro Leandro’s performance slowly builds as it becomes both more lovable and more encrypted. Whether you want a thought-inducing challenge or a good belly laugh – Fiji is well worth your time.

Reviewed by William Nash

Photography by Jonathan Oldfield

Fiji

Omnibus Theatre until 24th November

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

To Have to Shoot Irishmen | ★★★★ | October 2018

The Selfish Giant | ★★★★ | December 2018

Hearing Things | ★★★★ | January 2019

The Orchestra | ★★★ | January 2019

Lipstick: A Fairy Tale Of Iran | ★★★ | February 2019

Tony’s Last Tape | ★★★★ | April 2019

Country Music | ★★★★ | May 2019

Othello: Remixed | ★★★★ | June 2019

Lone Star Diner | ★★★ | September 2019

Femme Fatale | ★★ | October 2019

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★★★★

“What struck most powerfully, though, was the collective soul of their performance”

Four women, dressed in black, stand on a bare stage and for the space of an hour, deliver a passionate diatribe against the twin evils of sexism and racism visited on them daily. They are fierce, they are angry, they are eloquent, and they are young black women.

The experiences discussed here: patronising treatment in white-run offices, dreadful dates with white men who think the women are ‘exotic’, weird assertions of their sexuality and their personalities by black men, were powerfully articulated. They aren’t experiences that I’ve had, but the power and the responsibility of theatre is to make an audience feel things they’ve never previously felt, things that are the experiences of others articulated and embodied by performers. This quartet accomplished that in style. They used wonderfully arranged soul standards, sung a cappella, as leaven in this slightly preachy, torrential statement of their woes. Aretha Franklin songs have only sounded better when sung by Aretha, and their rendition was wonderful.

What struck most powerfully, though, was the collective soul of their performance: lines shared and restated, songs harmonised, movement synchronised, four actors sharing a space and a moment to make a collective statement. They even sighed in harmony. At the end, the audience leapt to their feet in spontaneous standing applause. So many standing ovations are woefully unearned, but this one felt right, like a coming together of actors and an audience that shared their experience. That was quite a moment. Would it have been a better play with less polemic? Very possibly. Would it have spoken so powerfully to the audience if it had been more measured? Almost certainly not.

Reviewed by Christopher Lilly

Photography by Ali Wright