William Nash Archives - Page 3 of 10

Dead Reckoning

Katzpace Studio Theatre

Reviewed – 13th May 2019

★★½

“Their exciting ideas bode well for the future but are no replacement for a performance in the present”

Daring, important, thoughtful theatre can be bad. It just can. A play is not a thesis. Even where a production’s messages are incisive, clever and critical to the discourse, it can still be unenjoyable, wooden and boring. Dead Reckoning by Clumsy Bodies has achieved this uncanny combination of having something important and new to say but still being spiritless and beige.

The show is an exploration of what it is to be young and non-binary or trans. It draws on recorded interviews of other non-binary and trans people to whom the collective have spoken. Dead Reckoning is a genuinely ambitious show that is thinking deeply about the emotions and realities of trans and non-binary people and often trying to seriously grapple with the second-order problems of who gets to be ‘trans’, what a ‘proper’ non-binary person is and the human impact of these choices. Through it runs a commitment to make accessible and vulnerable theatre. Our two young actors/writers/directors present spoken word and movement cut together with a concoction of genuinely engaging audiovisual content, audience participation and earnest personal stories.

This makes it all the more painful to say, but these ideas were drowned out by a seemingly low level of preparation combined with a substantial lack of performance.

While the evening was a scratch night, it was still unavoidably alienating as the two actors stood on stage without commitment or performativity. The physical theatre was awkward whilst the dancing was drawn out and appeared unrehearsed (but not in an interesting improvisational way). Acting from the pair lacked any sense of urgency or gravitas and there was a complete over-reliance on the script to deliver that autobiographical energy and vulnerability. For a show that showed such bravery in its themes and opinions, the acting was safe and fearful.

It was consistently hard to ignore that virtually no attempt at professionalism was made in the preparation. Theatrical clutter abounded with clattering mics, not-so-off-stage conversations with AV crew and a confused wardrobe of military-style jumpsuits. It’s not quite enough to say it was simply still a work in progress as elsewhere in the production this wasn’t a fundamentally poorly prepared show. Jess Rahman-González and Oli Isaac Smith of Clumsy Bodies had lavished preparation on the themes by carefully researched the ideas, with sections from historic newspapers, recorded interviews and impressive film and audio.

There was precious little set to speak of which meant that the frame around the stage was a constant littering of props from scenes gone by and scenes yet to come. Costumes were drab olive green RAF style jumpsuits that, I think, were supposed to leave the actors androgynous and sexless but instead cast them as a pair of aeroplane technicians.

All said and done, a play is about what happens on stage. Rahman-González and Smith have put together a complex, thoughtful, compassionate play yet failed to achieve the ‘IT’S ALIVE’ moment of animation. Their exciting ideas bode well for the future but are no replacement for a performance in the present.

Reviewed by William Nash

Dead Reckoning

Katzpace Studio Theatre

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Gaps | ★★★ | April 2018

What the… Feminist?! | ★★★★ | April 2018

Obsession | ★★★ | June 2018

Let’s Get Lost | ★★★ | July 2018

Serve Cold | ★★ | August 2018

Much Ado About Nothing | ★★★★ | October 2018

Motherhood or Madness | ★★★ | November 2018

Specky Ginger C*nt | ★★½ | November 2018

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

Oneness

Southwark Playhouse

Reviewed – 5th May 2019

★★★

“a talented cast of young female actors delivered a searching show despite a pedestrian script”

Very often when watching a play, it’s possible to condense the evening down to one emotion. For Oneness at the Southwark Playhouse, that emotion was anger. Emmanuel Akwafo and Liliana Tavares present a talented cast of four female actors for an hour of furious physicality, dance and theatre.

Where the play is advertised as a study of femininity and being female, it’s far more about how race in Britain intersects with femininity. Each character surges with unhappiness and frustration with how they’re treated because of their race which is challenging and stimulating, although the recurring themes do begin to drag towards the end. Interestingly, each character plays the same leitmotif throughout: the desire not to be questioned about her race, her femininity and her choices.

While the themes confront and stimulate the audience, the writing really doesn’t. At times, the script felt nearly parodic with painfully sincere cliches littered throughout simply stating how each woman is beautiful and strong. Chants of “A woman’s mind is her strength” and “Inside each woman, there is something beautiful” were supposed to be deep and moving, but came over lazy and straightforward.

Unfortunately, the cliches don’t stop there. If you were playing Fringe Theatre Cliche Bingo there were at least two more: masks and torches on a dark stage. Of course, directors have been using masks for thousands of years and no one has a trademark on a flashlight up against your face, but when these techniques are used the same way in each production they lose the cleverness and intrigue that once defined them.

The four young actors are there to catch the script and safely lower it to the ground. Their physicality, precision and commitment shine through the text bringing energy, inventiveness and shear strength. It’s clear that ‘sincere anger’ was the direction for almost every scene (apart from one), but the talented quartet mostly brought their own interpretations and give much needed subtly and fragility, especially during the physical sections.

The set was deeply confusing with the chain link fencing at each end of the traverse stage and the looming cubist painting juxtaposed strangely with almost every scene, setting one’s mind to archival art storage. It was only after, when I realised they were using the set from Other People’s Money which is also currently playing at the Southwark Playhouse, that it made sense.

Hypnotic bass-heavy music and dimmed lights build quickly from the beginning and then return for each piece of dance delivering a sense of consistent frustration left unrealised. The production elements were overall tight and well thought-through which is always rewarding at the Fringe Theatre level.

Taken together, a talented cast of young female actors delivered a searching show despite a pedestrian script often constructed out of feel-good snippets and baseless cliche. The politics were angry and the messages assertive with each of the female characters delivering a red-misted illustration of how race and gender interlock with these individual women.

Katzpace Studio Theatre

Reviewed – 13th May 2019

★★½

“Their exciting ideas bode well for the future but are no replacement for a performance in the present”

This makes it all the more painful to say, but these ideas were drowned out by a seemingly low level of preparation combined with a substantial lack of performance.

Reviewed by William Nash

Dead Reckoning

Katzpace Studio Theatre

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Southwark Playhouse

Reviewed – 5th May 2019

★★★

“a talented cast of young female actors delivered a searching show despite a pedestrian script”

Very often when watching a play, it’s possible to condense the evening down to one emotion. For Oneness at the Southwark Playhouse, that emotion was anger. Emmanuel Akwafo and Liliana Tavares present a talented cast of four female actors for an hour of furious physicality, dance and theatre.

Reviewed by William Nash

Oneness

Southwark Playhouse

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue: