Skip to main content

Flash Festival 2018: Lay Me Bare by Athena Theatre at Hazelrigg House, Northampton

Following the sexual abuse led Screw You, my second Flash of the week was Athena Theatre's domestic abuse-themed Lay Me Bare. They were clearly not going to break us in gently this year at Flash. However, if there is one thing that Flash does brilliantly, it's tough subjects. The students in the group are clearly passionate about the themes they choose, and nearly always, this translates into a quality, if often tough, watch.

Lay Me Bare depicts the very different characters of Monica Brown (Xara Chisano), Fola Balogun (Maddy Ogedengbe) and Elsie Smith (Farrah Dark), all who though share one despair in their lives, they are victims of domestic violence from their partners. We first meet them all, nursing black eyes, and in a stark opening sequence, they all attempt to hide the visual appearance of this with make-up.

It's a powerful opening, and what follows is a tough exploration of these three peoples lives, one a partner to a guy who uses the prison door like a revolving one, another who wishes to conceive, and a hairdresser whose partner is a hopeless drunk.

Each of the characters is rounded individuals, unlike their partners, who are faceless entities in this piece, perpetrators, but rarely fleshed out. I personally am unsure whether it is a weakness of the piece to not allow us to learn more about these, other than the constant fact that they are the bad guys. It leaves the piece one-sided at times because of this.

What it does allow to happen though, are three brilliant performances from the actors. All become real and desperately sad in their plight. Chisano creates a quiet brooding character, all emotion held within as Monica, the terror portrayed within facial expressions over verbal dialogue.

For me, I found Dark's portrayal of Elsie the lighter of the three, the plight is the same, however, perhaps because of the time setting for this character, the sixties, it for me had an easier approach to the telling, away from the normal shackles of more recent life. Even when bad things were happening, you can't help but think that they weren't as bad in the old days. A ridiculous statement, sure, but one that anyone over a certain age is often very responsible for. Bad things have always been bad things, no matter when they happened.

Finally, we had the anguish of Ogedengbe's Fola Balogun, fuelled with some tremendous realism. The sequence with the doctor becomes a one-sided scene of despair, all from Fola, and apathy from the other in conversation. She is offered nothing from the doctor for help.

Because of the nature of this play, there is little light relief, there is hope in one of the character's future at the end but little else, but other than Dark's lively Stacey, this is, as the material suggests, pretty bleak.

One definite criticism from me though was the use of purely recorded material during two telephone conversations, where neither actor did anything more than a passive expression throughout. It would have been great to have seen at least part of this performed live, or at the very least, some visual impact from the performers. For me, a very curious decision.

I was also curious as to whether these characters were actually based on real peoples stories, due to especially the decision to set one of them in the sixties, with clear birth and death years. Investigating online though, left me just finding a woman's refuge in Australia named Elsie. So perhaps, these were just created lives.

Lay Me Bare was, however, a well-conceived piece of theatre, powerful, telling and very well performed, but obviously not intended to be something to be enjoyed.

Performance viewed: Monday 23rd April 2018

The Flash Festival 2018 ran between Monday 23rd and Friday 27th April 2018 at three venues across the town.


Photo: Looking Glass Theatre

Popular posts from this blog

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...

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...

Review of Blood Brothers at Milton Keynes Theatre

Willy Russell's Blood Brothers is a remarkable show that, to any respectable theatre-goer, needs little introduction; however, a little introduction is still in order. First produced in 1983 in Liverpool, Russell had adapted the musical from a high school play he had written, introducing his own music and lyrics into the tale of the twins Mickey and Eddie, and their mother, Mrs Johnstone. From its very first run on stage at the Liverpool Playhouse, the sign was there that Blood Brothers was a very special show, and as a result, it now tours almost constantly in the UK, packing audiences wherever it goes. So, what can be said now that hasn't already been said? Very little, really; however, I must try. This latest production, opening a new tour at Milton Keynes Theatre, continues the format of old and brings the story still vibrantly to life. Also, this new tour still includes someone who is now as much a part of the show as Russell himself. Sean Jones has now played Mickey, th...