Skip to main content

Review of UoN Fringe 2019: Working For The Man by Naked Truth Theatre at The Platform Club, Northampton

When looking at the prospect of the Fringe performance Working For The Man, it is slightly difficult to work out who is the bravest person involved in this remarkable one performer, one audience member show set totally within or around the edges of a car. I guess I would in my case, say myself, but it takes some daring for performer Ellie Lomas of Naked Truth Theatre to also create a piece that offers the boldness that it does.

Working for the Man is perhaps unsurprisingly about the sex trade, and explores exploitation and how, or if, prostitution is taken as a serious profession.

It involves no live audio dialogue from performer Ellie Lomas, instead, she inhabits a purely physical performance, that is progressed by the use of a pair of headphones which you are given at the start. Across this audio are instructions of what to do. "Get in the car", "sit in the middle seat in the back", "open the glove compartment" etc, as you move to different areas of the car. As well as these instructions, true stories from sex workers are told, garnered from 'Nordic Now', an organisation which fights for the rights of those workers. You are also given instructions regarding what to do if you wish to cease the performance with a safe word.

The audio itself is cleverly constructed, and genuinely brings great emotion in how it is relayed upon you. It doesn't preach though, it is clear and concise with the information it relays with how the stories are relayed, and from all this, you leave enlightened, but also from some of the stories broken.

Obviously, the talking point from a theatre performance point of view though is the rest, and this, described as a little weird in concept by friends that I explained it to, is truly powerful stuff. Perhaps uncomfortable at times, but perhaps less than you would think, because, you quickly get into the concept of how it works. There is no question that it becomes very intimate at times with audience and performer, this doesn't really hold back. The closeness of the scene in the back of the car is quite prolonged, and for myself unexpected, so much so, that I wasn't in the right position at all for it comfort wise, so, that was an issue. However, the unexpected is how this piece works, there is no holding back in the power of the performance from Lomas.

It is also impressively constructed visually. Using the car as the theatre space, the placement in the various seats throughout offer some incredibly powerful angles, front seat rear uses the bonnet at the most perfect performance area, driver's seat allows the rear view mirror to hold that perfect final sequence to completion. It is almost a little filmic in the way it is brought about, and in that, totally superb.

Perhaps the only true criticism is how open the theatre space is for this, the whole piece being performed outside the cafe, and by outdoor seating, actually makes the location more uncomfortable than the piece itself is at times. It's true that this is as much an issue for the performer as the viewer, but a little more closed location would have made this more about the show, and indeed it truly being a one-on-one performance, and less the thought that actually you are part of the show as well. Which for many an audience member, that is not what they would want.

I enjoyed the idea of Working for the Man, it is bold and truly inventive theatre, nothing like I have experienced in my six years. This is truly immersive theatre, and while it can be uncomfortable at times, that is the point, and Lomas has set the bar extremely high for challenging and dynamic Fringe shows of the future. It wasn't the best that the Fringe had to offer this year, but perhaps, it was the most important, for setting the framework for how truly bold and immersive these shows can be in future years.

Performance viewed: Sunday 5th May 2019

The Fringe Festival 2019 ran from Monday 29th April to Sunday 5th May 2019 at The Platform Club Northampton, and one show at Hazelrigg House.

Details here: Fringe Festival 2019
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

The Rambert Dance Company is the oldest such company in Britain having first performed in 1926. However, despite this, this was my first encounter with the group in my ten years of theatre-going. Coupled with this, it was also my first encounter with Peaky Blinders , having never seen the show, and only knowing a few vague things about it. My companion for the evening however was very familiar with the show, allowing some background behind the show. It turns out though,  Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby needs a little more than a good bit of knowledge of the show, as despite this production having incredible style, there struggles to be a cohesive structure to the show and the storytelling. Much more than other dance shows as well. The first act does a whistle-stop tour of the first five seasons and while it is a feast on the eye, and on the ear, it gets extremely confusing at times. The second act is freestyle and drifts away from the stories tol...
Read more

Review of The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel is perhaps the perfect antidote to the troubled times we are in, harking back to when things were perhaps simpler and mass media and the press were less in your face. Not to say that bigshot Charlie Chaplin didn't make a name for himself in more than just the movies he made. This though is a warm show, filled with love. This show is based on the very real tale of the 1910 ship heading course for New York, which aboard were Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, unknown, but part of Fred Karno’s music hall troupe, and destined for different, but very major futures. Told by an Idiot's production with Theatre Royal Plymouth (and Royal & Derngate and Unity Theatre) breaks down the tale of the voyage of the SS Cairnrona with intriguingly created flashbacks of the life, generally of Charlie Chaplin. Therefore along the course of the voyage, we see Laurel's moment as understudy to Chaplin, the birth of Chaplin (brilliantly...
Read more

Review of The Pillowman at The Playhouse Theatre, Northampton

The Pillowman sounds such a friendly title, and to be fair, his story is one of the lighter aspects of Martin McDonagh's script. It still involves dead children though, if you want to get a clear vision of how dark this play is. Set in a police state of the future, Katurian (Toby Pugh) is taken in for the content of his often violent stories and a similarity to a spate of recent child killings. Here in detention cell 13, his police captors, Tupolski (Adrian Wyman) and Ariel (Steve While) play good cop, bad cop while holding over the threat of violence against Katurian's mentally disabled brother Michal (Patrick Morgan), being held in another cell. The Pillowman is clearly a very warped story, with the blackest of black comedy, and often also very offensive with it's racial stereotyping and disability. In fact, it is no surprise that a couple left in the interval, as I would happily admit that this play is far from everyone. I like a good black comedy though, and ...
Read more