Tristan Bates Theatre Archives - thespyinthestalls.com

Syndrome

Tristan Bates Theatre

Reviewed – 18th February 2020

★★★★

“Three of the four actors are making their professional stage debuts and they do with utter courage and conviction”

Thousands of British and US soldiers involved in the 1990-91 Gulf War found themselves suffering from a range of more than 50 different medical conditions when they returned home.

Medically unexplained symptoms, including chronic fatigue, indigestion, nerve and joint pain, insomnia, respiratory disorders, memory loss and severe mental health issues, led to scientific research being carried out but with no full explanation as to the causes.

Thirty years later, as organisations and individuals continue to press for answers to what became known as Gulf War Syndrome, an important and strong new play, which explores the experiences of four British soldiers during and after the conflict, attempts to consider the mental, physical and personal effects of the war against the Iraqis.

Tina Jay’s penetrating “Syndrome” at the Tristan Bates Theatre tells the story of the four men as they wait to move into combat in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm then, in the second act, jumps forward five years to see how civilian life is treating them back home.

It is never a comfortable narrative. The stresses of battle are tense enough in the first half, broken by friendly rivalry and joshing, but much is made of the troops’ exposure to pesticides, vaccines, gases from burning oil wells, biological and chemical weapons, anti-nerve-gas and an alarming array of medication. Revealing too much would spoil the impact of the piece but suffice it to say the consequences are harrowing and terrible.

Making his directorial debut Jack Brett Anderson takes a considered approach to the writing, ensuring that the intensity of the drama is balanced by a genuine shock value of this being something real which happened to tens of thousands of people fighting. There is an almost military precision in the way he allows the story to develop as the men realise that in war someone has to lose and someone has to win.

Three of the four actors are making their professional stage debuts and they do with utter courage and conviction, each commanding attention as they show how the young soldiers found ways of coping with life in the desert, not knowing what the future might bring.

Romario Simpson’s Ray is brash and self-assured, with his mind fixed on sleep and sex; Kerim Hassan as Deno is the lad who signed up as a dare and whose previous experience of sand had been on a summer beach holiday; Akshay Kumar’s Gabe is the quiet loner with a devastating secret, turning his hand to drawing what he sees around him as a means of escape. Matt, played by Robert Wilde, is perhaps the most interesting of the four, a public school product, married for 12 years, keen to respond to the call of duty in many areas of his life, with Wilde excavating the depths of this likeable but complex army second lieutenant.

The production is supported considerably by Jonjo McGuire’s impressive sets: in the first act a desert tent in which the foursome await their orders, in the second a bedsit and separate shady bedroom mirroring lives which have been forgotten by a system which continues to view the health issues as largely psychosomatic and with backgrounds that mean nothing to a society which may have some limited understanding of PTSD but not the particular horrors inflicted by the Gulf War.

Lighting (Matt Carnazza) and sound (Tom Wilde) add subtleties of atmosphere from the hazy sun-scorched sands and haunting Middle Eastern strains to the throbbing rhythms and beats of a busy Britain nearing a new millennium.

“Syndrome” has much to offer in a debate that needs to be ongoing instead of ignored or covered up. The 33,000 ex-soldiers believed to be suffering in the UK alone may just have a critical and compelling new ally in fighting their cause.

Reviewed by David Guest

Photography by Alex Dobbs

Syndrome

Tristan Bates Theatre until 29th February

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

The Incident Pit | ★½ | July 2019

When It Happens | ★★★★★ | July 2019

All The Little Lights | ★★★★★ | August 2019

Boris Rex | ★★ | August 2019

The Geminus | ★★ | August 2019

The Net | ★★½ | August 2019

A Scandal In Bohemia! | ★★★ | October 2019

Dutchman | ★★ | October 2019

Ugly | ★★★½ | October 2019

Raskolnikova | ★★★★ | February 2020

Click here to see our most recent reviews

Ugly

Tristan Bates Theatre

Reviewed – 29th October 2019

★★★½

“Ugly does not shy away from a plethora of difficult topics and this is to be admired”

Ugly, written by Perdita Stott and directed by Danae Cambrook, explores the notion of beauty and ugliness – from being ‘conventionally attractive’ to the ugly words that children throw at each other on the playground. The play is made up of several vignettes of the lives and experiences of different people. They are primarily women but there is also some brief consideration of societal pressures on feminine and homosexual men. The audience follows these people through their everyday lives – working out at the gym, attending social events, navigating school life etc. – in an effort to understand the dangerous fostering of self-loathing that seems almost inevitable in our image-obsessed society.

Five women make up the cast of Ugly: Eve Atkinson, Shereener Browne, Samantha Bingley, Hannah Marie Davis and Orla Sanders. The quintet works well together, and they all move effortlessly between their different characters. Five actors are more than enough for this production and at times the stage did feel quite crowded.

Shereener and Bingley are particularly strong, and the latter has some wonderfully emotive scenes as a little girl desperately trying to gain the approval of her overbearing mother. Bingley also lends her voice to some impressive solos which play on the idea of the perfect Disney princess.

However, some more variety in the cast would be appreciated such as a ‘masculine’ woman, a lesbian or another person of colour. As a black woman, Shereener explores the effect that the lack of representation in the media can have on a young child. These scenes were some of the play’s strongest and it would have been an interesting to have perhaps had some scenes where an Asian woman considers the frequent fetishisation of her race and its relation to feeling desirable.

The performance starts off a bit slow, but the cast seem to find their feet by the second half. A nice thread throughout the play is the five women stating how old they were when they first thought they were ugly. The ages are tragically low, ranging from ranges from six to ten. It is nice that a more obviously personal element is included in the production as it is not always clear what other monologues are based on reality.

There are also several moments throughout the performance where the production seems to be drawing to a close which makes its continuation slightly jarring. The finality in which some conclusions and advice are delivered cause some disjointedness. Ugly is highly ambitious in its subject matter but it is too much for its hour running time.

The set consists of a few chairs and low tables peppered with fashion magazines and candles. There is not much need for anything more elaborate than this. Props are used well especially a set of aprons which double as both towels to wipe away sweat after a workout and a feature in a repeated dance sequence that separates scenes. There is some strong choreography (Nadine Chui) elsewhere in the performance, most notably, a ballet dance by Davis.

Ugly does not shy away from a plethora of difficult topics and this is to be admired. However, some more exploration of lesser considered issues and a homing in on key messages would go a long way in elevating this production.

Tristan Bates Theatre

Reviewed – 18th February 2020

★★★★

“Three of the four actors are making their professional stage debuts and they do with utter courage and conviction”

Thousands of British and US soldiers involved in the 1990-91 Gulf War found themselves suffering from a range of more than 50 different medical conditions when they returned home.

Medically unexplained symptoms, including chronic fatigue, indigestion, nerve and joint pain, insomnia, respiratory disorders, memory loss and severe mental health issues, led to scientific research being carried out but with no full explanation as to the causes.

Tina Jay’s penetrating “Syndrome” at the Tristan Bates Theatre tells the story of the four men as they wait to move into combat in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm then, in the second act, jumps forward five years to see how civilian life is treating them back home.

Three of the four actors are making their professional stage debuts and they do with utter courage and conviction, each commanding attention as they show how the young soldiers found ways of coping with life in the desert, not knowing what the future might bring.

Lighting (Matt Carnazza) and sound (Tom Wilde) add subtleties of atmosphere from the hazy sun-scorched sands and haunting Middle Eastern strains to the throbbing rhythms and beats of a busy Britain nearing a new millennium.

“Syndrome” has much to offer in a debate that needs to be ongoing instead of ignored or covered up. The 33,000 ex-soldiers believed to be suffering in the UK alone may just have a critical and compelling new ally in fighting their cause.

Reviewed by David Guest

Photography by Alex Dobbs

Syndrome

Tristan Bates Theatre until 29th February

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Tristan Bates Theatre

Reviewed – 29th October 2019

★★★½

“Ugly does not shy away from a plethora of difficult topics and this is to be admired”

Shereener and Bingley are particularly strong, and the latter has some wonderfully emotive scenes as a little girl desperately trying to gain the approval of her overbearing mother. Bingley also lends her voice to some impressive solos which play on the idea of the perfect Disney princess.

Ugly does not shy away from a plethora of difficult topics and this is to be admired. However, some more exploration of lesser considered issues and a homing in on key messages would go a long way in elevating this production.

Reviewed by Flora Doble

Ugly

Tristan Bates Theatre until 2nd November

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue: