The Wonderful World of Dissocia - Stratford East

[harry]

Don’t think there’s a thread for this yet.

I didn’t know the play and have a hit-and-miss relationship with Anthony Neilson’s work that I have seen, but I really loved this. Best to go in knowing as little as possible so I’ll try not to say too much except that I found the first act to be darkly funny, witty, surprising, and extremely entertaining, and the second act rather profound. Loved the production and the use of colour, Leah Harvey is great in a tough role, playing it straight while all sorts of bizarre things are happening around her, and the supporting company are all really brilliant and vivid. Definitely recommended.

[Steve]

Saw the matinee today, and I concur with Harry that this is fantastic, and well worth seeing, being a work of imagination and insight, and utilising an astonishing cast of actors, who are all equally capable of naturalistic as well as exaggerated comic performances. As the central character, Lisa, this production is anchored perfectly, predominantly in an agreeable state of confused amusement, by Leah Harvey, who was equally wonderful as the central character of Hortense in the National's "Small Island."

Some spoilers follow. . .

It's a bit like Florian Zeller's "The Father," (albeit written much earlier) in that it portrays a person's (Leah Harvey's Lisa's) experience through their own disorienting point of view.

That experience, for the most part, feels very much like an adult version of "Alice in Wonderland," with the audience free to piece out for themselves what Lisa's experience would objectively look like, as well as free to simply float through Lisa's childlike wonder simultaneously. For example, the comical "insecurity guards" that she meets early in her adventure, Tomi Ogbaro and Michael Grady-Hall hilariously fussing over each other while each claiming to be the most insecure, would seem to suggest Lisa is insecure lol. Anyway, enough said about that, but my suggestion if you see this, is to play the detective with each and every comical incident, much as "The Father" persistently required a little detective work to get the most out of it.

If you do allow yourself to play detective as much as possible, then you are likely to enjoy the show a lot more than if you allow yourself the irritation of feeling you inadvertently and unintentionally booked a kid's show, which kid's show I myself enjoyed very much, as I do love absurdist comedy where actors do all kinds of accents and then mess with those accents to enhance comic surprise and throw you further off balance.

Leander Deeny, Michael Grady-Hall and Archie Blackhouse were all particularly good at slippery accents, and Phoebe Naughton's Australian accent not only gets special props from me, at how insistent and slippery it is, but also because the physical comedy Naughton does at the same time is just brilliantly heightened and majestically funny.

That's good, because all the comedy leavens and compliments what is deep down an immensely poignant character study of Leah Harvey's Lisa (every bit of which Harvey makes you feel) which makes overall for a rich theatrical experience.

If there is a drawback to the production, it may be that each scene lingers slightly too long in the first half, but for my indulgent taste, the scenes could have gone on even longer lol.

Anyway, highly recommended. 4 and a half stars from me.