A dark-tragi-comedy that will definitely leave you wanting to talk about it.
Rita Lynn is a one woman show written by and starring Louise Marwood, and tells the story of Imogen Wood. An ex-dancer addicted to drugs who finds herself unexpectedly acting as a life coach, while her own life is falling apart. We meet an array of other characters via voice over, such as the drag queen best friend, and the sleazy drug dealing boyfriend with a young son that Imogen bonds strongly with.
Louise is the sole writer and sole on-stage performer, so this entire production entirely rests on her talent as an actress and a playwright. Thankfully this show proves that she is very adept at both. She transitions expertly from tragi-comedy through to straight tragedy and back again with ease and her performance remains engaging throughout. There were some solid jokes that were delivered well, but my favourite line of the whole show was “I’m aging faster than I can lower my standards”. Honestly, I want that line printed on mugs, t-shirts, everything. Standout lines like this punctuate the show throughout, and it is quite a fast show that packs a lot into its 60 minute run time. There would be a temptation, especially with a show about a cocaine addict, to have everything moving at a million miles an hour, but this show has well thought out peaks and valleys which makes the time fly by.
An unfortunate aspect of the performance that I saw however, was the audio issues. This is a very tech heavy show, with lots of voice over that needs to come in quickly in succession, and sadly this was not always as seamless as you would have liked. With a bit more rehearsal and more performances, I expect these issues to disappear and for this to be the slick show that it is written to be.
The set for this show was really interesting, with the stage sectioned off into 4 quadrants with lines of white powder. This gave the audience a good visual clue as to where the action was taking place, depending on which quadrant Imogen was in, but the most interesting aspect was how the set changed throughout the show. The lines of white powder slowly get smudged and made messier as Louise moves throughout the stage. By the end, the neat lines are interrupted, and Imogen is partially covered in white powder. I would have liked to have seen this explored even more as the character of Imogen degrades more and more, the set could degrade more with her. This was a clever device and an innovative set that I think could have gone even further and been even more impactful.
The show puts a big emphasis on the life coach aspect of this show in its marketing, when really, I think this was a less consequential and less prominent aspect of this show than you might expect. That does not take away from the fact that this is a very entertaining 60 minutes and a show that I definitely recommend, assuming that depictions and discussions of drug use and suicide are not triggering for you. That warning does make this show sound incredibly dark and heavy, and while there are definitely moments of that, I would definitely describe this as a dark-tragi-comedy that will definitely leave you wanting to talk about it.
Rita Lynn played at the Turbine Theatre from 23rd – 27th January.