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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2016 11:24:38 GMT
To follow Blasted, which opened The Other Room (The Stage Fringe Theatre of the Year 2016), and is set in a hotel room which is ripped open to the world, director Kate Wasserberg now brings us another modern classic, this time set in a hotel room which opens out to the galaxy. At the interval, an elderly audience member said that she was trying hard to make sense of what the play was about but that she was strongly drawn in by the characters. I felt the same, and the second half is even more involving as the four characters all collide with each other to devastating results. The play is stuffed full of ideas and references which I found very hard to grasp but it's still gripping to experience. I'm off to the bookshop this morning to buy a copy of the text.
The Actress (Marilyn Monroe - Sophie Melville fresh from Iphegenia in Splott) and The Professor (Einstein - Brendan Charleson) are both deliciously recognisable. The Senator (McCarthy - Christian Patterson) and The Ballplayer (Joe DiMaggio - Ben Deery) are both also vivid characters, although I'm not familiar with them in real life. After this run of Insignificance, Christian Patterson and Sophie Melville will go straight on to Blackbird by David Harrower in The Other Room.
It works really well to play this production in the round, with the audience evenly distributed on all four sides of the square and all with an excellent, intimate view. The next two productions in this theatre are also to be in the round - Pilgrims, which is presently running at the Yard Theatre where it's not played in the round, and Love, Lies and Taxidermy which Paines Plough is touring in its fantastic Roundabout Theatre.
I am happy!
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