Super Duper Close Up
The Yard Theatre
Reviewed – 14th November 2018
★★★★★
“It is Latowicki’s strength as a performer that makes this piece hit close to home without feeling like a bland reiteration of our own interior monologue”
Made in China’s Super Duper Close Up tackles the anxieties of one woman in a world where ‘everything’s virtual, and virtually everything’s for sale’. It examines some of the hot topics of this moment: mental health, social media, and the subjection of women under both of these things. It is a subject with limitless potential… but is it just another “relatable” show covering “relatable” topics in a “relatable” (read: boring) way?
Thankfully not. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
Super Duper Close Up is driven by a unique and uncompromising voice that permeates every layer of the production. At the centre is writer/performer Jess Latowicki as ‘an inherently unlikeable person’ with a mouth that can’t be trusted and a brain weighed down by things that shouldn’t matter, but do. With a perfectly balanced mix of humour and raw emotion, she expresses the everyday realities of anxiety in a world where the internet is a source of both comfort and fear. Stories of her grandfather, her friends’ wedding, and the long wait for a significant meeting are punctuated by paranoid Google searches and interludes of scrolling. These and other apparently unrelated fragments gradually weave together to form an engaging narrative, told from what is quite possibly the set of a David Lynch film. The fluffy pink rug, rainbow streamers and overflow of flowers suggest artifice and pretence, especially when Latowicki is joined by a camera (operated by Valentina Formenti) that records her every move and projects it above the stage. The surreal visual of two performers (each seemingly different from the other, but ultimately the same person) has the audience questioning the reality of what they see. It is one of many clever methods used to comment on the separation between our virtual and real selves. Every aspect, from the set design (Emma Bailey) to the contents of the monologue itself, feels essential to Latowicki’s exploration of this idea.
It is Latowicki’s strength as a performer that makes this piece hit close to home without feeling like a bland reiteration of our own interior monologue. The truth is, we’ve all felt inferior. To the perfect couple, to the influential boss, to the girl whose photo we see one time on Instagram and who haunts us for the rest of the week. Made in China represent this experience with depth and honesty, cleverly using their singular style to avoid circular discussions and obvious statements. They have pioneered a new way to articulate the hidden sources of our insecurities, and have transformed them into something that is witty, visually striking and politically engaged without being preachy or pandering.
There’s so much more that I could say about this extraordinary show, but I just don’t have the words. Sorry. I guess you’ll just have to go and see it instead.
Reviewed by Harriet Corke
Photography by John Hunter
Super Duper Close Up
The Yard Theatre until 24th November
Previously reviewed at this venue:
Buggy Baby | ★★★★ | March 2018
Three Sisters by RashDash after Chekhov | ★★★★ | May 2018
A New and Better You | ★★★★ | June 2018
The Act | ★★★½ | July 2018
A Kettle of Fish | ★★★ | September 2018
Moot Moot | ★★ | October 2018
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