“The ensemble work produced by this cast was of the highest calibre, and the skill required to pull off this type of work should not be underestimated”
Asking for a Raise is a devised comedy which explores one of the central and perennial demands of office culture; exactly how do you pluck up the courage to ask for a raise? It’s a situation familiar to many of us, although the ‘universal office’ in the piece had more in common with offices of the past than with contemporary work spaces. One of the performers – the excellent Poppy Lawless – mentions her time at a call centre in her programme biography, and this reviewer couldn’t help feeling that the piece would have been taken to the next level by properly drawing on the experiences of these young actors, rather than rehashing an office setting that essentially hasn’t changed since the 1950s.
There’s no doubt that Hugo Aguirre (designer/director) and Franciska Éry (director), ably assisted by Liam Murphy (music), have produced a slick piece of theatre. It is visually arresting and tightly choreographed, with some well-orchestrated set pieces. Stylistically, it is reminiscent of the wonderful formative years of Theatre de Complicité, and there is still a lot of fun to be had within that absurdist European tradition. Again however, there was a feeling of disconnect. It felt like a well-mastered technique, as opposed to an organically-developed theatrical language, unique to this company, and as such, was lacking in soul. The office is, of course, an alienating soulless space, but the subject shouldn’t affect the performance quality. The ensemble work produced by this cast was of the highest calibre, and the skill required to pull off this type of work should not be underestimated. It was just a shame that the substance of the piece was not there for them to work with, and that they were not more present as individuals.
Fifty minutes is an awful lot of time for one relatively flimsy scenario to fill, no matter how much flair there is in its execution, and the script would have benefited from the same attention to detail as its performative realisation. Congratulations though to Poppy Lawless, Imogen Parker (with special mention to her wonderful solo smoky jazz pastiche), Jacob Ward, Jack Westgate and Gemma Wray. It would be exciting to see this gang work together again, taking a few more risks and bringing in some heart.
“visual clumsiness only added to the overall amateur quality of the evening”
The Space looked interesting last night. Inviting. Scattered leaves and crisp packets were strewn across the floor; a bike lay on its side; we were clearly on the edges of an inner city playground, a place pregnant with theatrical possibility. Unfortunately, the play that unfolded over the next hour did not fulfil these promising expectations. It lacked both narrative drive and pace, and the unconvincing performances did nothing to lift it beyond the realm of the banal.
The play is a three-hander, in which we see a group of friends – Ben (David East), Shaz (Abigail Sewell) and Tyrice (Christian Graham) – spend the night drinking in a park. Ben is having trouble dealing with his current circumstances – his ex-girlfriend is pregnant and he has just lost his job – and has come home after a five year absence to seek comfort and advice from the two people closest to him.
The piece opened with the recital of six different poems, exploring childhood, love, London, connection and alienation. Poetry in performance is a tricky art to master, and the performers here met with varying degrees of success, but the energy given to Dominic Holman’s untitled lyrical meditation on childhood, and to Tina Nye’s I am London, was welcome, particularly given what was to follow. (Neither of these pieces were performed by the actors featured in the play, and the programme was unclear as to whether the poets doubled as performers in this instance).
Be Born was characterised by a lack of energy, in both the writing and the acting. Christian Graham, the playwright, who also took the role of Tyrice, is not a trained performer, and his lack of tonal variation did nothing to help his fellow actors. The dialogue never lifted from the script, and the characters stayed stuck on the page, despite the naturalism of the setting. The play contained both a serious asthma attack and an on-stage accident (complete with blood pill), but these events are no substitute for drama, of which there was none. Even the promise of an offstage birth proved to be a false alarm.
In addition, the lighting design seemed almost wilfully unhelpful. Immediately after the initial poetry recital, the audience was put into blackout, into which came the first few lines of dialogue. The lights then came up, into what looked like warm daylight, and positively blazed about a third of the way through, making nonsense of one of the characters’ observations that, ‘It’ll be getting light soon’. This visual clumsiness only added to the overall amateur quality of the evening.
The Space has long been a venue which enables and supports new writing and emerging talent – indeed there were some terrific pieces on show at the One Festival earlier in the year – and as such, is entitled to ask its audiences to come with an open mind, and a willingness to engage with writers and performers at the beginning of their artistic journey. That being said, when a full-price ticket costs £14, the audience too is entitled, to expect theatre realised at a professional level. Be Born failed to meet that standard.
