“I feel like we are goods in a market. No one asks me about what I love, about what I dream. No one so far has asked this.”
Now in its second year, the North Wall Theatre’s single slot for new student writing is shaping up to be one of the highlights of the year in student drama, and this time it’s the turn of writer and director Jack Clover’s unique new play/musical/documentary Colin & Katya. Jack has been a regular on the new writing scene in Oxford, most recently writing the excellent Island People for the New Writing Festival in Hilary, and Colin & Katya has evolved out of Univ cuppers entry he wrote two years ago (it won Best Play and Best New Writing in the competition). In an ambitious combination of interwoven narratives and a ‘documentary’ approach featuring, slightly bafflingly but to great effect, a live Russian rock band and a sprinkling of physical theatre, the show tells the story of the phenomenon of British-Ukrainian matchmaking.
Central to this is the story of a romance between Colin from Essex (Tom Curzon) and Ukrainian Katya (Daisy Hayes), who have met online. In the rehearsal I saw, though still a work in progress, the chemistry between the two actors was electric. Concurrently, the play takes us on a ‘romance tour’ with a group of British men searching for love in Odessa, Ukraine, as presented by two documentary reporters (Georgia Bruce and Yash Saraf). Intriguingly, Jack tells me that the show will feature Hayes speaking verbatim Russian extracts (thankfully, both writer and actress study the language), and the two have already travelled to Odessa on a research and language workshop.
Clover aims to explore the cultural differences between East and West, looking in particular at the gender boundaries in both countries and the fact we’re really not that different at all. A highlight of the scenes I watched was Ell Potter’s brilliant appearance as Essex-born Sandra, Colin’s ex-wife and the mother of his daughter. In general, the multi-roling cast is a cross-section of the very best acting talent in Oxford right now, and they’re clearly having a great time bouncing off each other.
With a theatre like the North Wall, the show has the difficult task of creating a set which can both live up to the space and simultaneously become both Odessa and Harwich, Essex. Their design will centre around “chopped-up wind turbines”, which sounds, like the rest of the show, slightly mad but totally compelling. Lit by the talented Chris Burr (multi-roling himself as producer, production designer and lighting designer) and set-designed by Grace Linden, we’re likely to see a visual spectacle.
Colin & Katya promises to be a madly eclectic mix, with excellent performances across the board. You only get one chance to see Oxford writing at this incredible venue every year – go!
Colin & Katya is on at the North Wall Theatre, 1st-4th June in 6th week Trinity
