Skip to main content

Camden Fringe Review: FEET by Emma And Lawrence Wrote A Play at Etcetera Theatre, London

While some issue plays tend to miss the point of providing fun and entertainment as well as making their point on a relevant issue, FEET is certainly not one of them. Written, produced, directed and performed by the two-person team of Emma And Lawrence Wrote A Play, this is clearly a labour of love of the two, full names Emma Brown and Lawrence Smith, it is fun and engaging throughout.

It's "issue" is loosely about selling your body for money or art and how far you might be willing to push it. Lucy Winwood (Emma Brown) is your typical young actress, struggling hard to get those money making roles, or roles in general, and in need of money she stumbles upon the world of feet fetishism (as you, of course, would) and slowly from just images of her feet sold online, it becomes feet in jelly and then finally personal meetings with clients for full on feet interaction.

The path that FEET takes is that is this denigration of your body in selling your feet actually worse than performing a theatre role that involves full frontal nudity? It is an intriguing idea and it leaves Lucy at odds with her, frankly not very nice, boyfriend Ben (Lawrence Smith) and raises some interesting moral ideas. FEET treats this though in an unpreaching and fun way, creating likeable and interesting scenarios amid its slight weirdness. Touching on a neat spin on the increasing modern trend of revenge porn as well, leaves it an increasingly clever play.

Performance wise it is great, with Emma excellent in her single role, exuding fun and realism in this oddly developing lifestyle, while Lawrence is much better in his roles of the clients (surprisingly portrayed as very normal people at times, which perhaps there are? We all have our quirks, so as long as they are legal?). I did feel at times that his playing was much less impressive and tended to be unconvincing a little.

As a play, it is great fun but loses out being excellent from its curious over-reliance of prerecorded audio, including several minutes at the start of the play. These pieces are meant to be the thoughts of the character, and while their responses by the actor to these pieces are clever, the excessive use is too much and these thoughts could happily have been vocally performed live by the cast.

However, FEET remains a lovely piece of theatre which thouroughly delights while telling its morally challenging idea and deserves a much longer run than just the two performances it garnered at Camden Fringe.

⋆⋆⋆½

Performance reviewed: Friday 11th August at Etcetera Theatre, Camden Town, LondonFEET was performed during the Camden Fringe at Etcetara Theatre between Thursday 10th and Friday 11th August.
For further details about FEET visit them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FEETtheplay  or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/FeetThePlay
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Lord of the Dance at Milton Keynes Theatre

On what was so far the hottest day of the year, and the highest in many a record book, it feels a tad evil to watch as a group of extremely talented performers bring to the stage one of the most famous and most energetic dance shows to tour. However, arriving now at Milton Keynes Theatre, as part of what is now the still rather immodestly titled 30 Years of Standing Ovations tour, Lord of the Dance remains full of energy even on the hottest of evenings in Milton Keynes. I last and first saw Lord of the Dance as part of the 25 Years of Standing Ovations tour, four years ago (yes, the sums don’t quite work), and it was every bit as spectacular as you could imagine this world-famous dance show is. Born into the world from Michael Flatley and the Riverdance spectacular that preceded it, Lord of the Dance is a simple but effective battle between good and evil and the resolution of it through dance rather than fighting. The dancing here is, as expected, exceptional, led by the Lord of the...
Read more

Review of making second Kontakt with the R&D Youth Theatre at Royal & Derngate (Underground), Northampton

As I said in my first Kontakt review, I wasn't really sure that I wanted to see this show. However come Sunday and a second opportunity to see it, I was genuinely looking forward to it. With the show now having departed, for my second review I will elaborate a touch more on happenings, which initially I shied away from as spoilers. My actor for my second encounter was 15 year old Michael. He had the enviable task unlike Michael before him of dealing with someone who knew quite a bit of what was coming. As those surgical gloves went on I this time was certain that the R&D were not going to overstep the boundary and do a full medical. I had also learnt that a crisp sandwich was something that should be left in the memory, so cheese was a much more sensible option. I was able to complete the calculation generally unaided and managed to express an exaggerated shock at the latter outcome. The game of Jenga managed to stay stable once again and rather amazingly managed to bring t...
Read more

Review of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at Birmingham Rep

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street first appeared in this musical form in 1979. Adapted from an original play by Christopher Bond, the work was set to music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, with a book by Hugh Wheeler. It quickly became a huge success, opening on both Broadway and the West End within a year. Following Tony and Olivier wins, the show has seen revival after revival over the years, as well as a musical film starring Johnny Depp. Now, Birmingham Rep presents its own pared-back version of the show, featuring some big stars of the theatre world. So, the question is, is Sweeney Todd as razor-sharp as it once was? What is clear to all at the outset is that director Joe Murphy, also artistic director at Birmingham Rep, has assembled a remarkable and bold cast for the show. Leading as Sweeney is Ramin Karimloo, whose bio speaks for itself and is the biggest draw for this show, especially for theatres outside London. His Sweeney is a perfectly brooding affair, broken...
Read more