Review: Deadline Day

It’s the end of the transfer window – Deadline Day. Tensions are running high as clubs, players and agents alike attempt to make the best of the opportunity to switch up their teams and exchange incredible sums of money for the most talented individuals. Danny (Tevye Mattheson) is on his way down to London to sign a transfer that he is clearly unsure about. Supportive agent and friend Rachel (Victoria Gibson) is on hand, gently encouraging him to take the deal; driver and lifelong United supporter Trevor (Mike Yeaman) is the chauffeur for the day, unhappy about Danny’s decision to move away from his beloved club. There are a number of intriguing themes that permeate through John Hickman and Steve Robertson’s script, but none get the development they deserve. This is a show with too much to say and too little time to say it.

Review: The God of Hell

Frank (Craig Edgley) tends the heifers – someone has to. The corporates have moved all the dairy farmers out West, but Emma (Helen Foster) and Frank stay true to their roots. So much so that they live in the house Emma grew up in, was even born in – on the sofa that visitor Graig Haynes (Ryan Prescott) is sitting on.

Review: Dead Souls

Featured Review by Tom Ward.

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Monkhead Theatre’s debut piece, Dead Souls, by writer Chloë Myerson, is an adaptation from Nikolai Gogol’s infamously unfinished novel that attempts to engage its audience with a ‘well-structured narrative’, presented through the ‘wild rock & roll playfulness of experimental multimedia theatre’.

It tells the story of one man’s desire for wealth through the acquisition of souls (or dead Surfs) in 1800 ‘and something’ Russia. It does not live up to its promise. If you are going to throw around a phrase such as rock & roll you better deliver. Rock & Roll is divisive, pervasive, shocking and boundary pushing. This show is not.

Having a projector in a show does not make it multimedia as a theatrical form. Dead Souls appears more like a traditional play (in terms of plot) that is then intersected with projection, rather than a true blending of both. Placed upstage, the projector is used to both create and define space, where scenes are played throughout the rest of the building to positive comical effect, and to provide both sentence-long (amusingly subjective) descriptions of character and definitions of words (such as Surfdom). More interesting to note is Nicolas Pimparé’s creation placed centre stage, aptly named The Machine. Its mechanics cannot be described by this humble reviewer (lots of science stuff  that this theatre brain can’t comprehend), but the outcome generates the bulk of the show’s sound design that punctuates shifts in performative tone. Echoing and distorting sound so violently is has the potential to impart some real theatrical bite.

And then we move onto the rest of the piece. First and foremost this cast is devoid of subtext which makes their performances one dimensional. Here performances are played for laughs – actors keep looking down at the floor and the direction is uninspired. Certain simple character-driven moments are missed and these have jarring, and lasting, effects. For example, if Chichikov’s (Joshua Jacob) briefcase containing the list of purchased souls is so important, why would he leave it unattended at the other side of the room so that it can be conveniently opened and therefore cause his downfall? It’s as if Pimparé thought as far as his multimedia concept and that’s about it.

Monkhead’s Dead Souls doesn’t pack the punches that are promised, and it doesn’t feel like it is even attempted. Yes, there are some smart moments – The Machine is genuinely intriguing and more interrogation into this craft will produce even more sophisticated, idiosyncratic instruments. The show needs a serious shift in terms of smartly directing bodies on stage and how they present text, because Dead Souls feels about 50% complete.

 

Director: Nicolas Pimparé

Writer: Nikolai Gogol

Adaptor: Chloë Myerson

Design: Catalina Velez (Video); Jake Carno (music)

Cast: Toby Osmond; Joshua Jacob; Jules Armana

Dead Souls played TheatreN16 until 8 July 2017. For more information, please visit the website.

News: Heroines bring Shakespeare’s women into the 21st Century

After running a successful scratch night and 24 hour play event, new collaborative theatre company emberfly theatre now come to Theatre N16 with their first full-length production, Heroines.

News: Dead Souls brings a non-traditional voice to TheatreN16

Featuring live video feedback and sound sculpture, Monkhead Theatre presents a non-traditional adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s 19th century masterpiece.