MY JOURNALISM

Was this timely? Was it necessary? Was it important? These are the questions I’m contemplating after watching this play.

It was moving certainly. Thought-provoking for sure. It opened up a different part of our modern conversation about abuse, victims and consent. About predators and perpetrators. About humans and monsters.

This double-bill of dance pieces both star an impressive and athletic Elsa Couvreur – often centre stage without even music.

The Sensemaker is the tale of a woman’s struggle with a Kafka-esque bureaucracy. This play is in part commentary on the arbitrary nature of dealing with faceless machines, telephones and surveillance; part tale on the nature of the hoops we are increasingly forced to jump through as power dynamics in so many areas of our lives widen.

Good fringe theatre goes one of two ways. Either it’s so out there that it shocks you, or it’s small, personal, and deeply touching. In Feel, the latter approach is delivered in spades.

Feel is the story of two couples: one a seemingly uncomplicated meeting over the years while waiting for delayed trains; the other a failed attempt at a one night stand that lingers into a relationship.

Equus is a breathtaking, startling, and gripping play delivered brilliantly by a compelling cast.

Introduced to a tableau of boy and horse by world-weary psychiatrist Martin Dysart (Zubin Varla), from the off, I was struck by the beautiful physicality of Ira Mandela Siobhan as Nugget. His movement – not quite dance, not quite not-dance embodied the pride, beauty and power we associate with horses.

The American Clock is a lavish production of a confusing and disjointed play. It reminded me of nothing so much as a stage version of The Big Short. Half drama, half documentary, fully fascinating but largely for the glimpses of the real story of the crash and less for any sense of being lost in the lives on stage.