Tag Archives: Trafalgar Studios

Silk Road (How to buy Drugs Online) – 4 Stars

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Silk

Silk Road (How to buy Drugs Online)

Trafalgar Studios

Reviewed – 7th August 2018

★★★★

“a rollercoaster of a show packed full of sharp observations and bitingly comic one-liners at every turn of its white-knuckle ride”

 

‘Silk Road’ was the name given to an online black market best known as a platform for selling illegal drugs. As part of the ‘dark web’, users were able to browse it anonymously and securely without traffic monitoring. Shut down by the FBI in 2013, its very existence was a fascinating example of how the internet had evolved to the point of outwitting authority and became the inspiration behind Alex Oates’ exhilarating play.

Now running at Trafalgar Studios, it is easy to agree with the critical acclaim it received during its London premiere at the Vault Festival earlier this year. It is a rollercoaster of a show packed full of sharp observations and bitingly comic one-liners at every turn of its white-knuckle ride.

Bruce is nineteen, unemployed and living with his Nan. He is a struggling young Geordie who desires more from his life. His childhood sweetheart has outgrown him and, lacking any direction, he wanders through the backdoor to get a glimpse of the underworld of the title. The focus, though, is on the real-life characters he meets while he is skulking in the doorway; the writing never takes you right through to the dark side. But that is its strength – we are rooted in the real world of this unlikely hero.

Josh Barrow, as Bruce, ignites the stage from start to finish. Barrow is a ball of energy. With a chameleon physicality he brings the various characters to life: the new-age pirates sailing the web, the gangsters, the hard-shelled yet soft-centred club owners, the amdram musical theatre loving bouncers and, of course, Bruce’s omniscient Nan. Barrow knows how to tell a story and he does total justice to Oates’ razor-edged writing; full of rhythmic alliteration, weaving between rap, conversation and finely tuned impersonation; all with a mixture of tragedy, hilarity, menace and mirth.

It’s not often a description attributed to a one man show, but this is a real team effort. In fact, Oates generously credits, the actor, along with the director Dominic Shaw, for “crafting his wall of text into the living, breathing entity it has become”. These three talents do indeed combine to create a forceful piece of theatre. Running at just an hour long its cyclical nature drops you off where you started. You’re actually ready to walk away, yet simultaneously wanting more. You know that you could quite easily queue up again for another ride down ‘Silk Road’.

 

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Nick Rutter

 


Silk Road (How to buy Drugs Online)

Trafalgar Studios until 1st September

 

Related
Previously reviewed at this venue
Strangers in Between | ★★★★ | January 2018
Good Girl | ★★★★ | March 2018
Two for the Seesaw | ★★ | July 2018

 

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Two for the Seesaw – 2 Stars

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seesaw

Two for the Seesaw

Trafalgar Studios

Reviewed – 17th July 2018

★★

“a drama that feels outdated, lacking the high stakes needed to make this two-hander as compelling as it could be”


 

An “intimate character driven comedy-drama” (as described by director Gary Condes), Two For The Seesaw premiered in 1958 and has enjoyed a successful history since then, including a Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine starring film adaptation. Now in the intimate Studio 2 space at Trafalgar Studios, this new staging is painfully faithful to William Gibson’s original script, producing a drama that feels outdated, lacking the high stakes needed to make this two-hander as compelling as it could be.

Jerry (Charles Dorfman), a lawyer from Nebraska, has recently separated from a wife he is financially and emotionally reliant upon and moved to New York. There, he meets aspiring dancer and Bronx girl Gittel (Elsie Bennet). Representing two clashing personalities, the pair seesaw between loving embraces and tempestuous arguments, each keeping secrets from the other until a climactic duel that decides the duo’s fate. The success of this show hinges on powerful and, to use a slightly vague term, truthful performances, which Dorfman and Bennet, though both highly committed to character and given circumstances, fail to provide. We never quite connect with these characters’ drives, or feel what’s at stake, and delivery at times feel one-note, lacklustre and constrained.

The actors aren’t helped by Condes’ direction, who seems intent on making his actors sit and talk over the phone, or sit and talk in person, scene after scene… after scene. Max Dorey’s lovingly naturalistic set design too seems orchestrated to provide areas for actors to rest their tired feet. This prop-heavy design leads to soul-crushingly long blackouts that actually counteract the naturalism and make it harder to reconnect with the setting and situations. Though attractively working to support the story, the set seems to simplify the characters’ differences (Jerry’s apartment is blue! Gittel apartment is pink!) rather than interrogate the play’s themes further.

Revivals work best when we can question older plays from a contemporary point of view, and Condes lets Two For The Seesaw off the hook too easily. For some, some good old fashioned, barbarous exchanges between the sexes and a heartfelt exploration of marriage and power are enough for an entertaining evening of West End theatre. But ‘The Apartment’ this is not.

 

Reviewed by Joseph Prestwich

Photography by James Davidson

 


Two for the Seesaw

Trafalgar Studios until 4th August

 

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