Typical to Oxford’s theatre scene is the play in which some misguided, middle-class protagonist careers out of control following an irrational passion, or paranoia about the dreaded mention of suicide. Alex Wilson’s REPLAY has all this genre’s hallmarks. The acting and the direction was certainly promising; the sense of creativity with the stage is admirable, and I certainly received the impression that the next two weeks are going to be spent ironing out the creases.
Mary Clapp portrayed a Freya, this play’s pilgrim, who was profoundly rational about the process of story-telling. I might have expected a more passionate blindness in the turmoils of the potential pornography behind a role as a piano-teacher. The chorus, a highly effective group that reflect and blend in with Freya’s isolation, portray her story well and flesh out her rememberings. Benedict Morrison has very good diction ; Soraya Liu used the stage space well ; and Poppy Clifford opens the action with vigour.
Taughtneness, rigour and defined lines are crucial when trying to reproduce a Young British Artist version of Sarah Kane. It is clear that Wilson’s text has enabled the creative possibilites of the black-box interior of the Burton Taylor and lighting potential will also be explored. These factors certainly help define the lines between imagination, reality and storytelling, but never quite letting on which one is which is effective too.
After all, the representation of the most chaotic events of an individual’s misfortune, and the apparent terror that one seeks to reflect on them with, is an extremely delicate enterprise. The metrical madness of a more formal theatre conveyed in language what this type of play is expressing with a music-box and a suited-and-booted ghost of the classical Chorus.
As a late-evening distraction from the library or bar, REPLAY could indeed replay a very touching and dramatic series of events in a woman’s life – but make sure you’re in the mood for something intense.
Replay will be on in 6th Week, 9:30pm Tues-Sat at the Burton Taylor
