“promises to intrigue a fresh audience, present fundamental truths obscured by social media brainwashing and spark discussion”
To an older audience ‘RUSH’ is an affirmation of the frightening hold social media has on life nowadays, but for the young it is their actuality. Personality and human subtlety are being lost in an imposed multiple choice of reactions and perceptions as they race to display fun, beauty, happiness, success … no falling by the wayside with sadness, failure or confusion. Wrapped up in virtual identification, they lose contact with the reality around them. Writer/Director Tiwalade Ibirogba-Olulode, in a clever combination of irony and poignancy, uses her own issues with anxiety and depression to spotlight the effects of being brought up in the digital age.
The cast of five characters named Alex works in tight, well-coordinated formation to set a scene of hectic disarray and engage with the audience to recreate a distorted world of messages, comments, images and information, which seduces and ensnares the younger generation, in particular. The actors perform with relentless energy to project the intensely blinkered attitude of keeping up appearances and keeping up with friends. Each Alex inhabits a different state of mind, causing or caused by disorientation between the here-and-now and on-screen existence. These stories vary in clarity, adding a possibly unintended sense of perplexity to the play. Ruth Oyediran portrays some wonderful caricatures throughout the play but the significance of her troubled moment is not immediately obvious. The lost soul (Marie Williamson) is the easiest to follow, with a moving touch to her performance, and Jaden Baker’s amusing confusion with online dating is one of his several distinctive personalities. Georgia Sidell’s hidden passion comes as an uneasy surprise, in contrast to the surrounding larger-than-life smiles and laughter and a feeling of discomfort emanates as we watch Angelo Leal suffering in silence against a background of unawareness. Visually, the production is extremely captivating with original movement sequences (James Monckton), interesting use of the stage area and varied group interaction.
Certain parts of the work are better constructed and balanced than others, exposing scenes which fail to fall into the overall shape. With an engaging opening and a thoughtful summing up, the development of ideas feels more like a patchwork of expression. Easy to relate to, evident by last night’s largely young following, ‘RUSH’ promises to intrigue a fresh audience, present fundamental truths obscured by social media brainwashing and spark discussion.
“their neediness leads them to dance with a desperate parody of abandon, both agonising to watch and hilarious
Little known in the UK, Uruguayan novelist, essayist and poet Mario Benedetti is revered in Latin America. His death in 2009 became a catalyst for the region’s artists and writers and it is his poem ‘This is my house’ that provides the title for this short piece of physical theatre, staged with great brio at The Space Arts Theatre by the Oh Dear Theatre Company.
This work explodes Benedetti’s concept of home as a place in which there is no doubt, to the modern reality for millions, caught in the churn of teeming migration. Four transient archetypes (played by Daniela Cristo Mantilla, Nathalie Czarnecki, Santiago Del Fosco and Karolina Kritz) make their way for four different reasons, from the stability of their homelands to four barely defined destinies.
Theirs is a peculiarly modern variety of migrant, sharing nothing apart from their ‘in-betweenness’, unable to establish themselves in the cultural washing machine into which they are thrown. Indeed, clothing is used brilliantly from the start, the characters maniacally trying on and discarding clothes, effective as a metaphor for their unstable self-images, but also as a portrayal of instability itself. Wardrobe and the use of colour helps to separate out the play’s taxonomy of home-leavers – the searcher, the escaper, the mover and the ousted – creating order within a writhing, vibrant spectacle.
Physical theatre is not generally a clarifying medium. However, as a way to convey the delirium of the protagonists it is well chosen. Without acknowledging Benedetti’s influence, his appreciation of the poetry of the ordinary world runs through Hannah Winter’s script, with short, snatched scenes articulating perfectly those conversations with parents on leaving, that crisis of deciding what to pack for a journey to somewhere impossible to know. Movement Direction (Christian From) is no less articulate, for example in the scene in which the bewildered four are simply unable to sit on chairs properly, too anxious about fitting in, to fit in. Likewise, as they finally make friends, their neediness leads them to dance with a desperate parody of abandon, both agonising to watch and hilarious.
Despite a shredded narrative, mangled vowels and disconnected storylines, Directors Malena Arcucci and Mariana Aristizabel Pardo ensure the performance remains enjoyable and meaningful. Granted, it’s unlikely anyone will understand all mother tongues employed. Yet through the construction of the script, the use of audio sequences (Francisco Dorado) and lighting (Niko Goodman) to demarcate and punctuate, a kind of geometry is created to hold the audience and set up a satisfying conclusion, as the ousted meets an inevitable fate.
