I thought that the 8 hours I saw of this, from 4pm to midnight, 4 rounds (Wilson got a break of 15 minutes after each round) of 8 scene partners each, covering the first 32 of 100 scenes, were absolutely rivetting!
The first two scenes felt stilted and unnatural, but Ruth Wilson swiftly became more loose, more surefooted about how to feel, and therefore how to react to her scene partners, based on how they answered her opening questions ("How are you? What are you thinking?"), especially once the third person came in, demonstrating some acting chops, and gave her moments to live in, rather than just plod through her movements and moments mechanically.
The audience had to warm up as well, overcoming disorientation, and coming to understand and anticipate that opening moment, where the scene partner is free to improvise who they are, and understanding that Wilson's treatment of them from that moment on is defined by that moment.
In many ways, I wish I had stayed for the whole thing as I can only imagine how bonkers things have become once sleep deprivation mania has set in lol!.
But I had tickets to two other shows today, and plans with other people, before I ever scored a ticket to this. I console myself that the person who took my seat deserved it as he had been queuing 3 hours.
The scene itself starts with Wilson gazing off to the left into the gauze (and the cameras), as her scene partner enters behind her, then, like "Married at First Sight," she turns around to see them for the first time: "Scene partner at first Sight" lol!
Then she asks the question, "How are you?" (pause for answer), and then the determining question: "What are you thinking?" (pause for answer).
These questions influence the course of the scene, informing Wilson's character's approach and attitude to relating:
So, for example, the cocky young man who answered, that he was sorry he hit her in the face the night before, to the first question, then responded to the second that he was thinking about how tasty his pulled pork burrito he had just eaten was, teed up Wilson for the most aggressive of her first 32 scenes!
It should be noted that there are two big setpieces in the scene: (1) she transfers noodles out of the takeaway box onto her scene partner's body in a manner befitting however he has made her feel; and (2) She performs a drunken dance with him, during which she suddenly slumps, and goes rigid, half way through, forcing her partner to carry her weight.
With Mr. I-hit-you-in-the-face-but-I-care-about-my-burrito-more-than-you, she took those noodles, slammed them into his face with the palm of her hand, and rubbed them all over his face and hair. Then, in the drunken dance setpiece, in which she must dance with her partner, and halfway through, slump to the floor, she aggressively charge-danced him into a chair and ground herself full weight into him, bouncing repeatedly on top of him, full weight like a child on a bouncy castle, leaving him an exasperated and exhausted looking mess lol!
Among the first 32 scene partners, all 32 struck me as he/him pronoun types, exuding various degrees of masculinity. 2 did alert my ever-flailing Gaydar, however, expressing utter disinterest in Wilson as a sexual being, turning her deep insecurities about her attractiveness into light-hearted camp repartee. Both these encounters were very funny, one predictably because his gossipy triviality in the face of her breakdown enraged her into noodling his face and viciously dragging him to the ground in the drunk dance, even as he continued to be nonplussed, but the second, was a genuine surprise, as Mr. Metrosexual-and-maybe-gay responded exceptionally originally to the central opening questions:
When asked how he was, he said he was still overcome by how she had sexually devoured him against his will the night before, and when asked what he was thinking, he said he was worried she might try doing it again:
Of course, he was then put in the position of begging a Betty Boop blinking, sexually full-on Wilson to leave him be, even as she flirtatiously loaded his mouth with noodles, grope-danced his entire behind, and slumped in such a way as to end up shagging his leg like a dog. The audience was in stitches, and so was I, so in contrast was this scene from Wilson's typically enigmatic, quizzical and standoffish persona.
Indeed, at least for the first 32 scenes, comedy was the order of the evening rather than drama.
Especially funny was a very chatty young man in Harry Potter glasses, who was so effusive and so genial yet sensitive to Wilson's massive (scripted) insecurities, that both Wilson and the audience fell in love with him, and she ended up feeding him noodles like she was his Mum, seemingly wishing he would never leave, resulting in a massive ovation from the audience at the end.
Very few scenes I saw varied from the comedy genre, but I do recall two:
In one, a very caring old man seemed like he was her Dad, and there was genuine pathos in how, in the drunk dance, she slumped forwards in such a way as to help him into a chair, rather than dragging him to the ground, or weighing him down in a coma dance. It was touching.
In possibly the single most magnificent scene I saw, an absolute highlight of the first 8 hours, maybe scene partner number 20 or so, a deep voiced, slow speaking, sensitive confident man, resembling a "Let's Get it on" era Marvin Gaye, seemed crestfallen by the distance between the pair, and expressed such tenderness and soulfulness, that the two were drawn to kiss, and astonishingly, Wilson passed him her noodles chopstick to chopstick, a real feat given how many noodles there were, and the couple slowdanced as if it was the last dance on earth. This was the only scene I saw, that received a massive ovation from the audience, where laughter had nothing to do with it, only genuine feeling.
Overall, this was a terrific and exciting project, full of surprises, loads and loads of laughs, infused with Lynchian repetitive psychological weirdness, and a little bit of love.
I wish I could have stayed longer, and I hope film of the full 24 hours surfaces. At worst, there is a documentary coming, being edited in September. And in the short term, Arifa Akbar apparently attended the whole thing for the Guardian, so her review will be fascinating, and I saw Micky Jo Vlogger still in his seat when I left at midnight (though his sidekick with the camera, taking pictures and short video clips, departed at 10pm followed out by Jack Farthing, though they were not together lol).
For me, this was an exceptional 5 star fascinating, funny, surprising and entertaining night.
