i am george massey, TheSpace on The Mile.
Out of Context Theatre’s i am george massey provides a terrifying insight into how easy it is for someone to fall into the rabbit hole of depression and radicalisation. Childhood trauma results in his never fully coming to terms with who he is; he takes the counselling that is available but the degree to which it helps him is questionable. Suffering bad side effects of Citalopram, he posts a cry for help on the Internet, and it is Stan who answers and gives him support. But the Stans of this world can have ulterior motives. Raising very pertinent issues that affect us all, this is an emotional, gripping and powerful play; technically flawless, and immaculately written and performed by Stephen Dee.
Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act, Assembly Rooms.
Nigel Miles-Thomas leads us through Sherlock Holmes’ greatest cases, his friendship with Watson, his enmity with Moriarty and his final days of retirement. But there’s also a fascinating glimpse into Holmes the Man, with a moving portrayal of his childhood days; the cruelty of his father and suffering of his mother. Mr Miles-Thomas takes on dozens of characterisations through this absorbing piece with a wonderful range of voices and accents, and I was hooked on his every word. It also made we want to go back and re-read all the Sherlock Holmes stories for myself. Truly engrossing!
Nettles, Greenside at George Street.
Alyona takes us through a history of her past sexual encounters, prompted by the possessions in an unknown man’s suitcase. It’s a patchwork of tales, loosely linked; and her memories suggest that all these encounters haven’t really made her at all happy. Jacqueline Lipman gives an intense performance but the show lacks substance, light and shade; and I confess I couldn’t quite put my finger on quite what it intended to achieve.
Hardly Working, TheSpace on The Mile.
Charity wanders into the bar where Lois works in order to hand in her CV – but she’s left it behind. Nevertheless, she gets a job and they strike up a relationship – with Charity making all the running. Lois moves in with Charity in Charity’s parents’ seven bedroomed house. This is wealth beyond Lois’ imagination. But she is uncomfortable at having everything bought for her – so starts to go flat-hunting without Charity’s knowledge. She’ll be happy at that, right? The powerplay between the two characters makes for an interesting subject, and the conclusion it draws is that the rich partner is only in it for the power and domination over the poor partner. Nothing really to do with class, as the blurb suggests, just money. Sadly, however, it’s very poorly presented, including an agonisingly slow process with a small whiteboard that the poor actor who plays Lois constantly has to rub out throughout the play, replacing Now with Then and back again, ad infinitum. That needs to be replaced with something that changes more quickly (a simple lighting change could perhaps suffice?) There’s a totally superfluous male character whose relevance never becomes apparent. There’s also some disappointing stagecraft – items that fell off the bar counter in one scene stayed on the floor for the rest of the play, whether or not it was now or then. Hopefully it can be tightened up during its run.
Nick Schuller: Still Dry White, Laughing Horse at the Eastside.
Still Dry White is the perfect name for Nick Schuller’s show, as he’s extremely dry, does stay quite still during his performance, and – well you can guess the rest. He has a fantastic delivery style, very unhurried, careful and measured, with perfectly chosen words; the result is that the sting in the tail of many of his jokes comes totally unexpectedly and twice as funny. Not afraid of a pause in delivery – always the sign of a confident comedian – Mr Schuller has some brilliant material that frequently goes close to where angels fear to tread, but always stays on the funny side. An extremely enjoyable and surprisingly piquant hour of comedy.