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Oslip Theatre presents
AVOCADO
Written by: Lily Bevan and Bekah Brunstetter
Directed and Produced by: Lily Bevan
Stage Manager: Jude Cound
King’s Head Theatre
18 – 29 Aug 09
A review by Jafar Iqbal for EXTRA! EXTRA!
“A New York/London fusion, come and meet a series of characters who may win your heart, freak you out, challenge your preconceptions. Extraordinary. Raucous. Delightful.” That was the synopsis given by The Oslip Theatre for their newest production, Avocado, written by Lily Bevan and Bekah Brunstetter. On their programmes, their leaflets, the website, everywhere. Four sentences - three of which consisted of only one word – was all the paying public would receive when opting whether to spend their hard-earnt money or not. Some may call it stupidity; others arrogance; others bravery. After all, unless you are off to see a play starring Jude Law or written by Harold Pinter, you need to be persuaded, to be sold the idea of seeing a particular production on any given day. So, with this distinct lack of hype and expectation, I sat down to watch this Lily Bevan-directed play. I was not disappointed. The word ‘disappointment’ doesn’t even come close to the feelings that I, and the rest of the audience, came away with once the seventy-five minutes had ended. The raucous cheers and appreciative whistling vouched for that, and rightfully so. Avocado is, quite literally, a fun show. It is what you would want from an evening out – entertainment, pleasure, and a lot of laughter. Like a jigsaw puzzle, all the pieces that need to come together for the success of a production (acting, direction, script and technique) merge together beautifully, culminating in a finished product of the highest quality. In some respects, they could be forgiven for not having such an elaborate synopsis on their promotional material. The show had no specific narrative structure running through it – instead this was a series of short monologues, each one loosely connected to the one before it. The stories start in London, and an avocado takes the play to New York, fourteen characters meet in total. It is a story about the insecurities felt by people living in these two big cities – how the rollercoaster ride that is daily London and New York life affects the people that inhabit it. From middle-aged single mothers to ten-year-old girls, from stoned layabouts to drunken messes, we meet a person from each section of society. Each with their own pains and tragedies, exposed to the audience with cleverly dark humour. It’s interesting to see that, despite monologues being written by two different writers from different sides of the pond (Bevan wrote the London monologues, and Brustetter the New York side), they both share the same themes – loneliness, isolation, allusions to death and suicide. All of these themes are explored extensively, to great effect. As good as the writing could be, though, a monologue is only as good as the performer standing alone on stage reciting it. And, as came to be expected, the actors were fantastic. Each monologue was beautifully acted – drawing humour, sympathy and pity all at the same time. Pandora Colin, Lorna Beckett and Joe May stand out with their performances, but singling one character out from the group would be an injustice. All of the cast are strong in their performances, and who is preferred is purely a matter of opinion. Technically, everything is simply handled. There are occasional light changes and sound effects, but nothing overly complicated. The staging is also quite easy – props on the side of the stage are brought to the centre when needed, and a very simple background is more than enough. All the attention is on the actors, as it should be in such a production. There isn’t anything too complicated about Avocado. This is, simply, a great show that needs to be watched. Some of the material may be a bit risqué, and sometimes a bit too close to reality for our liking, but you can’t help but enjoy it. There may not have been much written about it by the producers themselves, but the show does all the talking. Literally.
£13 (£10 concessions) Tuesday – Saturday: 7.30pm Sunday 23rd August: 4pm The King’s Head Theatre, 115 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 1QN http://www.kingsheadtheatre.org Box Office: 0844 209 0326
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