Julia Burgisser
Entering the intimate room, we are very aware we are entering a deeply personal space, full of black and white pictures with the same faces reoccurring, some faces looking out on the world in misery, an eclectic mix of makeup and beauty tools on a desk, details of a dark world trying to find and capture beauty.
The show begins with a plunge into the darkness, as we follow the director, Alexander Sparrow, down into the rabbit hole, sensory deprivation making the gasping breaths that fill the room more of a presence in the space. The photo negative lightbox reveals the actress, Georgia Latief, a sad figure emphasised in grey tones and black clothing, who speaks in a voice that to begin with shows a seemingly limited range of emotion.
The show is very much about collections, from the collection of meaningless things her granddad gave her, to the collection of photos that surround the stage space and this continues over to the sounds. Deep rasping breathing, waves, and voices are the soundtrack of the show, Sound design by Prashan Casinader, and these noises are used in a reoccurring method in times of great stress for Alice.
What we witness in this show is Alice’s anger, her helplessness, her constant loneliness and the constant struggle that every woman knows; to be what everyone else want you to be. The struggle to fit in, be perfect, be popular, is portrayed in every story. She must be clean for her mother or she is punished with entrapment. She must be more beautiful to fit in at school. She must be always more than she is, give more than she has and it’s an emotion which at moments takes my breathe away and brings tears to my eyes in it’s familiar suffocating embrace.
Anger and jealousy grow as the struggle to win back over lost friendships grows more intense and filled with betrayal. There’s a sense of building tension as Alice asks us “What makes their opinions worth more than mine?” The red light and noises grow ever more present, ever more insistent in a mist of rolling emotion.
The final scene filled with desires of revenge and wanting it to all end, the audience are shocked with the reveal of how far Alice will go to go back to normal. During the play she gives us all of herself; her fears, her anger, her love, her memories and her dreams, and her torment only stops with the end of the play. Do we all suffer endlessly, always trying to be someone we are not, trying to make those who we love love us back, until it’s all over?
I walked away with chills and a promise to treat myself better, have more faith in my choices, to let go of trying to please everyone around me, and find hobbies rather than people to cling to for happiness.
A powerful play, with beauty in it’s simplicity and horror at it’s heart. One which will stay with me for life.
The show is very much about collections, from the collection of meaningless things her granddad gave her, to the collection of photos that surround the stage space and this continues over to the sounds. Deep rasping breathing, waves, and voices are the soundtrack of the show, Sound design by Prashan Casinader, and these noises are used in a reoccurring method in times of great stress for Alice.
What we witness in this show is Alice’s anger, her helplessness, her constant loneliness and the constant struggle that every woman knows; to be what everyone else want you to be. The struggle to fit in, be perfect, be popular, is portrayed in every story. She must be clean for her mother or she is punished with entrapment. She must be more beautiful to fit in at school. She must be always more than she is, give more than she has and it’s an emotion which at moments takes my breathe away and brings tears to my eyes in it’s familiar suffocating embrace.
Anger and jealousy grow as the struggle to win back over lost friendships grows more intense and filled with betrayal. There’s a sense of building tension as Alice asks us “What makes their opinions worth more than mine?” The red light and noises grow ever more present, ever more insistent in a mist of rolling emotion.
The final scene filled with desires of revenge and wanting it to all end, the audience are shocked with the reveal of how far Alice will go to go back to normal. During the play she gives us all of herself; her fears, her anger, her love, her memories and her dreams, and her torment only stops with the end of the play. Do we all suffer endlessly, always trying to be someone we are not, trying to make those who we love love us back, until it’s all over?
I walked away with chills and a promise to treat myself better, have more faith in my choices, to let go of trying to please everyone around me, and find hobbies rather than people to cling to for happiness.
A powerful play, with beauty in it’s simplicity and horror at it’s heart. One which will stay with me for life.
