As it draws to the end of term I am becoming more and more tired of the same old Oxford. Same libraries, same tutors, same nights out. I was therefore delighted to be invited to the preview of ‘Attempts on her life’ which is not similar to anything I have experienced before. Marcus Crimp’s postmodern work is renown for being challenging, confusing and thought provoking. The play is made up of seventeen unconnected scenes that refer in some way to Anne – the main character. We never meet Anne but instead hear about her through the various perspectives offered in each scene. That is not to say we ever understand or know who Anne is; she is a different person to every actor in every scene if not a different person to every actor in every line.
The play begins with multiple characters leaving unconnected messages to Anne on her answer machine. One character portrays an emotional mother financially cutting off her daughter, while another wishes to sexually assault Anne. All messages are unconnected whilst also playing on stereotypical human relationships, each is relatable in isolation but ambiguous in the sporadic context of Crimp’s work. Indeed, the opening scene can be seen as a paradigm for the play in general in how it explores a plethora of intense human emotions in a nonsensical way.
The irregularities of narrative and characterisation make this a daunting play to put on as a director. The script gives no indication as to how many actors there should be in each scene or who should say which lines. These decisions are down the discretion of the director, Archie Thompson. In response to these challenges he replied that the process had been wholly collaborative with all of the actors working closely together to determine who should say what and which characters should be created to best represent each scene. The overriding sense that I found was how compatible and comfortable the various actors were with one another both on and off stage and the characters that emerge are decidedly original.
In order to counter the potential confusion of having seventeen completely separate scenes, the actors always remain on the stage. The play is like an audition with each scene beginning with an automated voice that states the title of the scene and the number of actors involved. There is an eerie competitive edge throughout all of this and you are often left guessing whether each actor is expressing his own feelings or those of the character he is acting. The sudden changes between humour and horror create a sense of uncertainty in the viewer and it is hard to know whether you should laugh or cry.
Attempts on her life explores various themes from consumerism to religion to human relationships in a way that makes it difficult to take any coherent meaning from the play. Perhaps the overall theme of the play is to challenge the individual’s identity, something that is increasingly relevant with the modern obsession of social media, where actual identity is lost in the desire to be represented in a certain way. I left the preview more confused than when I walked in but perhaps that’s the point? Either way it was an exciting taste of what looks to be a fascinating production that will affect every viewer in a different way.
