“Barrow and Rivers, as the Love Lab guinea pigs, have a wonderful chemistry together“
A flash of searing white light fills the small room of the Tristan Bates Theatre, and with that, it’s action. Cameras are rolling and it’s time to make a match. Love Lab, a new play that’s part of the Camden Fringe, is a frighteningly perceptive look at our technology-obsessed world, and how social media and reality TV are changing the way in which we make decisions – particularly with our love life. With witty and astute observations, it certainly makes you question the dangers and insanity that comes with our digital age.
Livia (Harriet Barrow) and Perry (Michael Rivers) find themselves locked in a confined space. They have never met before, but soon will be closely acquainted. They are the current batch of contestants for the new dating show, Love Lab, which claims to be able to match you with ‘the one’. Having to stay within the enclosed room together for a week, with nothing but each other’s company and the disembodied voice of Lucy, asking them questions and offering tasks, will they find that they are meant to be together? As Lucy’s questions begin to distort, becoming far more personal and twisted, Livia and Perry endure having their private lives exposed to the nation, ready to be scrutinised by all.
Barrow and Rivers, as the Love Lab guinea pigs, have a wonderful chemistry together. One is a technophobe who takes pleasure from the little things in life, the other, a social media whiz who aspires to be recognisable. Their contrasting and often bickering personalities spark an often comical, quick-witted repartee between them, which is a pleasure to watch.
The clinical feel of the set and lighting design helps provide the darker thematic undertones that run throughout the play, hinting to the psychological damage technology is causing. Sitting somewhere between Big Brother and Love Island, the concept for the TV show seems far too plausible for comfort. Love Lab has the dystopian sense of reality that Black Mirror has daunted us with in recent years. To those who lead dating app swiping, reality TV binging lives, Love Lab is a reminder of what it is like to communicate without the reliance of a screen or a WiFi password. A highly entertaining, yet claustrophobic sixty minutes that doesn’t shy away from challenging our societal norms.
“A charming memoir of the working every(wo)man, proving the pleasure and relief escapism can bring”
The Camden Fringe Festival is here again and it seems to be frothing to the brim with more new, exciting, wacky and thought-provoking performances than ever. While many are heading up north, over the Scottish boarder, to take in the crazy delights of the Edinburgh Fringe, those of us staying in the capital can be just as entertained over this next month with a huge selection of shows in various venues. One such show to help kick-start the festival is The Cloakroom Attendant. An autobiographical one-woman play written and performed by Dimitra Barla, it is a sweet and whimsical look into the realities and fantasies of the woman we all encounter to take our coats and hand us a little ticket – someone who rarely gets given a voice. Having already toured around Europe and performed at The Wallace Collection, The Cloakroom Attendant is once again at your service to take your belongings and regale you with a tale or two.
Margot is the cloakroom attendant of a prestigious art gallery. To pass the time away at her rather tedious job, she amuses us audience members with her insights she has made on life. People watching the visitors who come in and out of the museum has made her quite the expert on the human condition. Contemplating her own personal issues as well as more universal matters; Margot becomes inspired and swept up in the paintings that surround her, living within her fantastical stories. Even if it’s only until the next customer arrives.
With just a rail of hangers of varying clothing items, and a couple of picture frames, Barla is able to paint a clear and vivid image of the eclectic visitors she encounters, as well as the world within the gallery, and not to mention her highly imaginative mind, in which she often resides. With help from director Natalie Katsou, together they have created a stylised piece, offering inventive movement around the stage, which provides a satisfying aesthetic to what could have been quite a static, lacklustre show.
At times where Barla’s Margot is lost in her own world, or in the characters she constructs from the figures within the paintings, there is a loss of clarity. However, it is the amusing steps of what it takes to be a cloakroom attendant (the passive aggressive stage, the jealous stage, the ‘just keep smiling’ stage) that really is most engaging. Anyone who has worked in a customer facing position will be able to relate, with a chuckle and a wry smile, to the ever-so-true scenario’s Dimitra Barla depicts. A charming memoir of the working every(wo)man, proving the pleasure and relief escapism can bring.
