Nathalie Alison, first year English student at Leeds Trinity University, took herself off to The Carriageworks to see The Enough Project …
As I climbed the steps of Leeds’ Carriageworks Theatre I thought to myself, ‘This is the first time I’ve been to the theatre this year’. This explained the surprise I felt as I crept into the main auditorium – late thanks to public transport – and became instantly involved with the intimate bond between theatrical cast and its’ audience.
The Enough Project is a double-billed production, which Theatre in the Mill’s Iain Bloomfield feels ‘attempts to ‘be’ differently, to ‘think’ differently, to be ‘made’ differently. And he’d be right; I’ve not seen anything like it! Both plays consist of a small cast of four who act out their roles within a very simple setting, accompanied by a few effective, well-placed props. In both Something Right and Brimming, I felt that the simplicity of it all contrasted beautifully with the actual performance of the cast who tackled some extremely relevant and pressing matters affecting our society.
Something Right begins in the den of enlightened liberal man Robin, furnished with ageing couch, a small box-crate and a laptop. There’s a digital projection on the walls that altered throughout the play. providing an excellent way of establishing changes in scene. As well as creating the wallpaper, it allowed the audience to become part of Maisie’s ‘enlightenment’ experience with trippy, fast-paced colours and flashing lights. This, along with the clever use of urban music ,allowed the audience to get the feel for the play and kept us sitting on the edge of our seats wondering what on earth would happen next.
The main theme of the play that spoke to me was the conflict of interests, which both enriches and plagues our society, between capitalism and the desperation to break free from it. After being caught up in the middle of Robin’s unconventional relationship with 18 year-old Jake, Maisie finds herself torn between wanting to make something of herself, as her mother wants her to, or daring to take a stand and start a revolution, to liberate the ‘people’ from the ‘system’. At first I was convinced that the cast were portraying the idea that there are no rights or wrongs, just alternatives, but by the time the play had ended I found myself sympathising with mother Sarah. The reality is that she was just trying to protect her vulnerable 16 year-old daughter from a lonely old drug-pushing hippie.
After a short Ice-cream and beer break, the audience took to their seats and immediately began giggling as O Fortuna melodramatically blared as the dim stage lights revealed a young Johnny Hargreaves ominously thrashing and twitching. Seconds later the lights brighten and it becomes clear that he is at his girlfriend’s middle-class parents’ home for dinner. The mauve curtains and grandiose dining set straightaway imply the high standard of living that this family enjoy – an element made satirical through classic British, physical comedy with props such as a gallon-sized wine glass for mother and dessert taking the form of pavlova the size of a small elephant.
The play takes a turn to the bizarre when it is made apparent to the audience that Johnny’s possessed-like state manifests itself as a small lamb that replaces the boy’s right arm. As the play progresses it is clear that each character bears a ‘spirit animal’, which I interpreted as a physical form of the inner self, each creature looking out for their respective humans and advising them to what is in their best interests. I found this technique to be a form of genius as the play covers some real, hard-hitting problems that affect the modern family but is made a whole lot easier to digest when addressed through the theatrical medium of puppetry. At first it is obvious that the characters are ashamed of their animals, seeing them as gross mutations. However, as conflict reaches its peak within the Taylor household, they and Johnny take comfort in the advice of their talking arm, and eventually become proud enough that they embody their attitudes and grow as people.
From watching both plays, there is a quote that particularly stood out for me, and not just for its cleverness. Monica Taylor, whose spirit animal took the form of a moth, said “I don’t want the moon, I just want peace”. It is unclear whether she was speaking to the lunaphile moth or to herself, but what is clear is that she was after the happy ending that most of us search for our entire lives and discovered that she could achieve that by simply believing in herself, with the help of a forthright arthropod.