Tag Archives: Tim Cowbury

The Claim

The Claim

★★★★★

Shoreditch Town Hall

The Claim

The Claim

Shoreditch Town Hall

Reviewed -20th February 2020

★★★★★

 

“a tremendous example of when theatre truly can be a powerful mouthpiece and provoke its viewers to want to genuinely act”

 

Many people seeking asylum in the UK arrive hoping for a new start. They feel Britain will offer them a sense of security they’ve been craving. However, studies have shown that the Home Office’s system of processing asylum seekers is failed, with wrong decisions due to misinformation and language barriers happening regularly, causing dangerous or traumatic effects. The Claim follows one such asylum seeker’s aggravating journey of wanting to be heard and find consummate peace. It’s a compelling tale of injustice, designed to incite change.

Serge (Tonderai Munyevu) wants to tell his story. He wants the trauma of his past to be softened by the assurance of protection and stability in this country. The country he’s hoping to make his permanent home. An office, where co-workers A (Nick Blakeley) and B (Indra Ové) deal with claims of refuge. Claims like Serge’s, A and B’s job demands precision and the truth, however in their process of obtaining it, they ultimately fabricate the answers they want through prejudice and misinterpretation.

It is devastatingly heartbreaking to see the anguish and torment Serge is put in, as he jumps through administrative hoops. Never has the term ‘lost in translation’ been so apparent. Playwright Tim Cowbury allows the audience to feel they are fully standing in Serge’s shoes, experiencing the same infuriation as he, within the same moment. You feel an immense sense of investment in the character Serge, rooting for him throughout and willing his actual truth to be heard and understood. Many hands in heads and sighs of frustration could be seen and heard from the audience members. The play generates this kind of immediate, involuntary response. Cowbury masterfully composes interweaving and intercutting dialogue, with voices overlapping into a cacophony of communication breakdown. As much as the writing deals with deep rooted issues, it is off set with amusing moments and witty lines that make this abstract set play a joy to watch.

The three actors play their distinctive parts excellently. They all have a nimble hold on the complex, fast-paced nature of Cowbury’s dialogue. Munyevu’s vulnerability and desperation as Serge is most stirring. Ové as B is unbearably clinical with her job, yet presents a nuanced subtext that proves that B has had her own issues of discrimination to contend with. Blakeley plays the nervous energy of a liberal white male do-gooder to perfection. A’s ignorance whilst trying to be a saviour is most believable.

Played in the round, with some dialogue breaking the fourth wall, the audience are very much immersed in the action. Sometimes, claustrophobically so, feeling too close for comfort to the action. Another device to make the audience experience the same emotions as the protagonist. A simple block in the centre for a chair and vertical, four-corner strip lighting highlights further the impersonal, inhumane environment of such offices.

This is the most affecting piece of performance I have seen in recent time. The Claim is a tremendous example of when theatre truly can be a powerful mouthpiece and provoke its viewers to want to genuinely act. Something that many productions strive to, but never actually achieve. The Claim is different. With strong writing, powerful performances and inclusive staging, this is a terrifically thought provoking show in every aspect. Who knew sitting in a state of exasperation could be so entertaining?

 

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by John Hunter

 


The Claim

Shoreditch Town Hall until 7th March

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Shift | ★★★★ | May 2019
Gastronomic | ★★★★★ | September 2019
Kneehigh’s Ubu! A Singalong Satire | ★★★★ | December 2019

 

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Super Duper Close Up – 5 Stars

Super Duper Close Up

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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