IN BRIEF Skilfully performed folkish fantasy infused with Celtic musical charm
Young Eilidh is the only girl living
on a remote Scottish island whose community is in decline. With her Mother away
on the mainland, Eilidh is cared for by her grandmother who has a somewhat macabre
sense of humour, and enjoys rehearsing for death – much to Eilidh’s annoyance.
When a dying baby whale is washed-up
on the beach, a mysterious young girl also appears from the sea. The slowly-building
relationship between Eilidh and her mysterious contemporary forms the
exposition of the story
The engrossing and delicate score (and lyrics) by Finn Anderson captures the elusive qualities of this environment and the two main characters. Haunting looping sounds built and layered to create an intriguing and ever-changing soundscape are created anew for each performance, using only voices to create what we hear.
Evoking the mysticism and fundamental
power of the sea, this engaging folk fantasy creates enough atmosphere from the
performers to get through, though the rather half-hearted dry ice produces too
little visual effect in the Southwark Playhouse’s Little space, where the show
is performed in the round.
There is very little visual
about this show, meaning it could easily become (or have been) an album or
radio broadcast. The book felt a little overlong, perhaps ten minutes too long
at 75 minutes running time. Certain parts like the rowdy community meeting seem
a bit padded and the secondary characters are all rather broadly sketched.
Undoubtedly this show is at its best when it’s singing; the performances (from Kirsty Findlay and Bethany Tennick) really elevate this material. Using modern technology to build vocals layer upon layer by the two skilled and perfectly-matched performers in real time, this is both impressive and fascinating in itself.
As the meandering story gently
flows to its close, encompassing forgiveness and choices to make, this unusual
and engaging show artfully reminds us that wherever there is life, there is
hope.
ISLANDER runs at Southwark Playhouse until 26 October. Details and tickets here
PRELUDES is a moving and intelligent musical about the power of therapy and music. The show features a hypnotherapist who helps the composer through his problems. I thought it would be interesting to get a practising hypnotherapist’s view of the show, and so I took along my friend Carlos Gouveia who is an RTT Hypnotherapist. I am sure that you will find his thoughts interesting in this, the next instalment of the VIEWS series.
PRELUDES is a fascinating
musical journey through the mind of composer Sergei Rachmaninoff as he
struggles with writers’ block at the end of the nineteenth century. The way
that he chooses to face his fears is through hypnotherapy (the use of hypnotism
for therapeutic purposes), a relatively new science at that time. Hypnotherapy
in various forms had existed through many centuries, but when reintroduced by
Franz Mesmer earlier in the late eighteenth century it began to be regarded
with more respect as a scientific therapy.
During hypnosis, a person is
said to have heightened focus and concentration, and a dramatically enhanced
capacity to respond to suggestion. The application of hypnosis as a
psychotherapy tool to deal with deep rooted issues in the subconscious mind can
bring about enormously positive changes. What is surprising is that even today,
certain misunderstandings and misconceptions about this therapy have lingered.
It is incredibly rare to see hypnotherapy given centre stage in a theatrical work of any kind, let alone a musical, and that is why I was prompted to write about it.
Writer/composer Dave Malloy has created a significant show which is not at all showy or blasé; no, this is a very thoughtful and almost meditative show. The audience I saw it with were as focussed as the clients in a therapy session, and their reactions quiet and thoughtful. The show gives no “built-in” pauses for applause except at the conclusion of each act, another highly unusual move which allows an acute maintenance of focus upon the subject throughout.
What is fascinating is that,
although this is a show about a musical genius, it is principally about a human
issue that we have all encountered: failure. This helps to make the show
enormously relatable. We can identify elements of ourselves in Rachmnainoff’s
struggle; the negativity, the doubt, the hopes, and loved ones rooting for us.
Malloy has given us a very human Rachmaninoff, played expertly by Keith Ramsay.
It is dangerous when someone
finds themselves dominated by a chain of thought that tells them that they are
not good enough, that they don’t deserve much, and that other people look down
on them or tolerate them out of politeness. When they find themselves snagging,
hindering or impeding their wellbeing on memories of things they did wrong, or
relationships that they didn’t get right, that is the time to seek help.
To ask you directly, reader; do you feel that you have to be a success in life just like you think someone else is -and are you consequently critical of yourself? This place in psychology is called ‘the inner Tyrant’. This was Rachmaninoff’s reality for a long period.
The show portrays the numbing state of depression and anxiety Rachmaninoff was experiencing very convincingly, climaxed at the start of the second act and skilfully performed by Norton James playing the demon in Rachmaninoff’s head. This feeling of being uncomfortable was palpable within the audience as I took time to observe my fellow theatregoers’ facial expressions of unease and discomfort. All of the actors gave highly-committed performances, with Rebecca Caine playing Dahl the hypnotist giving a solid and compassionate portrayal, conducting the sessions calmly whilst effectively supporting and reframing Rachmaninoff‘s state of mind and beliefs about the earlier traumatic event in his career.
Talking to several audience
members after the show, as well as being delighted to have seen such a
mould-breaking show, several said that they almost felt that they had undergone
a sort of therapy too. And as mentioned before, the intriguing thing about the
show is that it deals with failure- allowing the audience to share in some degree
of their own catharsis as a valuable by-product of seeing the show.
PRELUDES is a brilliant piece of theatre which helps people understand the immense value of hypnotherapy – both historically, and today in helping millions of people live happier and more fulfilled lives, less burdened by the past and more energised by the future.
Of course, hypnotherapy – along with all types of therapy – has evolved dramatically over the last century. In my own branch of hypnotherapy, RTT (Rapid Transformational Therapy), I use a pioneering combination of four therapies – hypnosis, NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and psychotherapy – to deliver extraordinary, permanent change from physical, emotional and psychological pain by reframing my clients’ beliefs, habits and emotions that lie deep in their subconscious mind. This gives each client immense value – and it gives me enormous satisfaction to help them.
If this show has prompted you to think about the potential value of hypnotherapy in your own life, please feel free to drop me a line at hello@changeideserve.com or call 07870148504 for a free, initial chat.
SHAPING DUST – A work in progress from company Fancy Another? at the Tristan Bates Theatre (John Thaw Studio) at the start of September. Part of the theatre’s John Thaw Initiative Graduate Season 2019.
Are we still ourselves without our memories? Emma explores her past on her final day in her childhood home.
We open in the present day on Emma’s final day in her childhood home. Searching for a very important tea cup Emma is led through her house, discovering more and more of her memories until she enters an upstairs bedroom and encounters a memory that shakes her sense of self. Described as ‘magical realism on stage’, Fancy Another? uses puppetry, movement and hard-hitting naturalism to explore how identity is formed by memory and how our sense of self changes if we lose our memories.
Currently only 30 minutes long, this is an early incarnation of a work which focuses on Alzheimer’s and makes some interesting points about the specifics of memory loss, including a brilliant analogy about memories being books in a bookcase and dementia being an earthquake which causes the bookcase to shake.
There was a lot of good work in the show that we saw, with some interesting use of visuals. I think that once they have doubled the length of the show and further developed some of their ideas, then they will have a show I would be pleased to see again.
EITHER – a new play by Ruby Thomas and directed by Guy Jones, at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs
As we all know (or remember),
our twentysomething years are a time of discovering who we are, what we are and
what we want. And often we discover that those we thought we knew are more
complex than we might have originally thought.
EITHER introduces itself as “a
play about one couple …. who can be of any gender”.
EITHER is a story about two twentysomethings
looking for love. Or sex. Or something. The two characters who seem to be in
some developing, loose kind of relationship, are tested by the proliferation of
opportunities for experimentation. As one character says, “Having an
opportunity doesn’t mean that you should take it”
The two characters are played
by a total of six actors, who weave in and out of the two main characters, in a
sort of acting relay race. It’s intriguing for a while, and it certainly keeps
you on your toes, but it reaps diminishing returns. Further, it does also have
the downside of fragmenting character and making us rely more heavily on what
is said rather than a deeper understanding of the two characters involved. In
that sense it is rather unsatisfying.
The play weaves its way around lots of ideas asking more questions than providing answers. And it seems that an abundance of easy opportunities via technological distractions (dating apps, etc) makes it harder for these characters to define what they actually want from their relationships. The feeling from the play is that they are looking for answers from outside themselves, rather than looking inwards.
It’s undoubtedly an
interesting take on sex and sexuality, commitment, liberation and labels.
Gender-fluid and narrative-fluid as well as actor-fluid, this is a show which
keeps moving the goalposts to enable us to see things from different perspectives
and to encourage us to ask questions and challenge our assumptions. A late
focus on a discovery by one of the character’s fathers who has dementia reminds
us that every generation has their fallibilities.
Ruby Thomas’ well-observed dialogue (in her first full-length play) is very twenty-something, self-conscious and a little wince-inducing at times, but it fits the characters and their ongoing development. Guy Jones directs smartly on Bethany Wells’ clever minimal set design.
The two characters age several years though the play, finally returning to a similar conversation that opened the show, which perhaps signifies that they haven’t really got very far. Which sort of sums up how I felt about the play; although the journey was interesting and I am glad to have made time to see it.
IN BRIEF Searing anti-war play’s outrage retains its power in a solid production
What could be more idyllic? An
English country garden on a warm Autumn afternoon with apples dropping from the
trees around, tea on the terrace with friends and family. So what’s wrong with
this picture? In Somerset Maugham’s searing and furious 1932 anti-war play, it
is the people.
One family and their acquaintances try to cope with the devastation of their lives and dislocated social mores – the complex, bitter legacies that World War One has created.
Himself a Red Cross medical officer from 1916, this is Maugham’s heartfelt tribute to those millions who enlisted with patriotism in their hearts, little thinking that their country’s “undying gratitude” would have such a terrifyingly short expiry date. As the title suggests, their heroism was shamefully reduced to the level of a simple transaction by inept governments.
These forgotten men of World War One, discharged without proper support or rehabilitation – “shattered” men, who were sacrificed to maintain England’s cosy self-image, now shattered itself. The hypocrisy and denial in the treatment of those who risked everything for their country, later being criminalised for a simple lack of support is shocking even today.
FOR SERVICES RENDERED concerns three sisters’ attempts to make a future in a time when a whole generation of young men were crippled or, simply, missing. Maugham’s play shows that war’s scars are often invisible but no less life-changing. Eva, who lost her loved one in the War, leading an emaciated life, slides slowly into despair and madness. Ethel, who married a hard-drinking tenant-farmer, is resigned to her lot, acknowledging that breaking class barriers as she did has had its consequences for them both. Bored young Lois, much younger than the other two, has learnt from their sorry outcomes and is determined to grab life despite the costs to those around her, savouring the power of flirting with an infatuated married man at the expense of his wife. A suicide sets off a chain of events causing what remains of the genteel facades to disintegrate before us.
The three ex-servicemen – one blinded in the war, one a farmer, the other a garage owner, are ill-suited to a civilian life and this takes its toll upon them all as they fight their own internal wars.
The older generation do not get off lightly, either, from the stoic Mother whose imminent death appeals as a release (“I’m pre-War”), to the blithely unaware Father, ironically broadcasting his own utterly blind reading of the family situation in a smug coda; and to the infatuated visitor who can afford hundreds for a pretty girl’s necklace but not to help a struggling ex-serviceman survive.
The final moments, as the National Anthem is sung as a sombre, empty gesture, are deeply chilling and unsettling. No wonder, I suppose, that contemporary audiences shunned it and it closed after just 78 performances.
Tom Littler’s intelligent production works well to illustrate the inequalities of the time. Rachel Pickup conveys Eva’s fragility and decline in a quiet, sincere manner. Diane Fletcher acutely shows us the dignified but tested Mother, “out of time” with herself and the world. The detailed sound design by Yvonne Gilbert works very well too. In all, a very worthwhile revival.
FOR SERVICES RENDERED plays at Jermyn Street Theatre until 5 October. Details and tickets here
