Tristan Bates Theatre Archives - Page 5 of 17

The Incident Pit

Tristan Bates Theatre

Reviewed – 27th July 2019

★½

“The actors are talented, and do their best with the starkest of stagings”

Wikipedia defines an incident pit as ‘a conceptual pit with sides that become steeper over time and with each new incident until a point of no return is reached. As time moves forward, seemingly innocuous incidents push a situation further toward a bad situation’. Regrettably, the bad situation here is an uncomfortable combination of underwhelming scripting and direction.

The play’s namesake is a flooded quarry, the depths of which remain unexplored. As the play opens, yet another diver has lost their life in the attempt, and the performance goes on to document the impact of the seductive pull of this untamed beast as two divers consider what might lie below. The premise is gripping and there are chances here for fascinating themes to be explored. Where does bravery end and recklessness begin? When does courage and determination tip into selfishness and obsession? And what is it about unexplored places that so compels us?

The fact that the theses are so promising makes the execution all the more frustrating. The Tristan Bates specialises in new writing, and this is to be celebrated – but The Incident Pit is a salutary reminder that sparkling playwriting is so much more than just bodily lifting the written word into stage dialogue. The actors in this two-hander, Carl Wharton and Miranda Benjamin, do their best but the language is unforgiving. Clumsy, improbable phrases like ‘she was decorated on her return extensively’ (Benjamin as Fiona on her resistance fighter grandmother) and ‘the pit has claimed the lives of…’ (Martin, played by Wharton) make it impossible for us to believe in these characters (not to mention the unexplained peculiarity of two people who seem to have nothing in common and seem to frankly dislike one other spending so much time in each other’s company). This not how people speak, and it’s hard to watch the cast try and sometimes fail to inject credibility into the script.

Wharton, especially, seems to struggle. He has the perfect look for diving-obsessed Martin; athletic, lean, driven. But the plodding pacing and unvarying tone (with a few high drama moments that, when they come, seem so at odds and without preamble that they ring out, sounding tinny) mean that Wharton’s delivery drifts towards monotony.

One of the more febrile moments, a wartime scene, falls especially flat. Fiona’s grandmother is bound to a chair while Martin stalks around as a Nazi officer in a performance dripping with cliches. We’re but a hair’s breadth away from ‘vee haff ways of making you talk’ here, and the plot conceit deserves better. Using ‘ein’ and ‘und’ liberally throughput speech in a frankly hammy German accent doesn’t make for a convincing or in any way menacing performance; again, Wharton has been hamstrung by scripting, but the delivery and indeed the directing (by Chris Leicester, also writing and producing) call for far more nuance.

The titular pit sounds full of intrigue and menace, and the ideas here are compelling. The actors are talented, and do their best with the starkest of stagings. But ultimately, the thrill of this pit comes not during the drama of the night, but at the production’s end.

Reviewed by Abi Davies

The Incident Pit

Tristan Bates Theatre

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Drowned or Saved? | ★★★★ | November 2018

Me & My Left Ball | ★★★★ | January 2019

Classified | ★★★½ | March 2019

Oranges & Ink | ★★ | March 2019

Sad About The Cows | ★★ | May 2019

The Luncheon | ★★★ | June 2019

To Drone In The Rain | ★★ | June 2019

Sorry Did I Wake You | ★★★★ | July 2019

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com

★★★★

“it feels intimate in the small playing space but doesn’t shy away from asking big questions”

On arrival, the audience walks into a seemingly abandoned empty black box studio – not an actor or prop in sight. We were soon joined by a masked figure that looks like a bear (Zoë Dunn) who unpacks all of the props and costumes for the performance.

Each side of the stage is lit in different colours, one for each of the two sisters Bea (Nina Georgieff) and Annie (Beth Collins). They enter, apparently unaware of the presence of the bear watching in the corner. Immediately, the atmosphere is uneasy – the omnipresent bear, acknowledged occasionally but never discussed.

Sorry Did I Wake You is a tale of two halves. The first, explores the sisters’ relationship as they navigate how to deal with distance as Annie goes to university. This is represented by slick synchronised movement sequences that don’t interfere with the flow of the text. Georgieff stands out in her physicality, particularly when playing the younger version of Bea. The pair’s relationship feels natural and at no points false, which is a testament to the skill of the actors who play the sisters through a range of ages.

The second part of the story, stems from the reveal of great loss. The atmosphere, again, shifts as we see Annie attempt to regain a sense of the world. This section is led by Collins, who subtly but poignantly displays the visceral effects trauma can have on the body. It is clear that the piece has strong direction (Emma Jude Harris) as the movement here is incredibly powerful, showing the repercussions of bad news on an individual. The lighting predominantly used is a single wash light that illuminates the small playing space, but at this point it is so dim that you can barely see the actors. These details are testament to the piece’s multi-sensory exploration of grief.

This whirlwind play takes audiences through a range of emotions, time periods and memories. It feels intimate in the small playing space but doesn’t shy away from asking big questions. The bare stage is scattered with costumes that suggest a web of the entangled memories of the two girls. From the first moment, we are left uneasy at the glaring presence of the unexplained bear. More could have been done with the design of the bear mask to improve the clarity of its presence. However, in this open exploration of loss, design and music elements took the backseat. The actors’ movement skills and delivery take centre stage.

As an audience, we are not given definitive answers but are left to piece together information that is revealed to us in fits and starts. What is at the centre of this innovative play is movement, both physically but also in its narrative. The play may be no picnic, but the bear and the two girls help us to understand the infinite sadness true of loss.

Reviewed by Emily Morris

Photography by Hugo Bainbridge

Tristan Bates Theatre

Reviewed – 27th July 2019

★½

“The actors are talented, and do their best with the starkest of stagings”

The titular pit sounds full of intrigue and menace, and the ideas here are compelling. The actors are talented, and do their best with the starkest of stagings. But ultimately, the thrill of this pit comes not during the drama of the night, but at the production’s end.

Reviewed by Abi Davies

The Incident Pit

Tristan Bates Theatre

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Tristan Bates Theatre

Reviewed – 3rd July 2019

★★★★

“it feels intimate in the small playing space but doesn’t shy away from asking big questions”

On arrival, the audience walks into a seemingly abandoned empty black box studio – not an actor or prop in sight. We were soon joined by a masked figure that looks like a bear (Zoë Dunn) who unpacks all of the props and costumes for the performance.

Reviewed by Emily Morris

Photography by Hugo Bainbridge

Sorry Did I Wake You

Tristan Bates Theatre until 7th July

Previously reviewed at this venue: