A smart, twisted, dark comedic drama of four people locked in a recording studio as they descend into madness
After a run at Edinburgh Fringe in 2023, In Everglade Studio is enjoying a short run at the Hope Theatre in April 2024. Written by Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller, and Co-Directed by Brimmer-Beller and Phoebe Rowell John.
Set in 1974, In Everglade Studio is about four people who come together over a single night in a recording studio in London with the goal of creating a whole record’s worth of hits in a single evening, unaware that the materials in the walls of the basement studio are toxic, and driving them to insanity. The audience is informed of this by a brief audio track of a future documentary that plays to the room, suggesting bizarre and tragic events of the night we’re about to watch.
Skye (Emily Moment) is a white English artist heavily influenced by American country music, brought to the studio by mixed-race music producer Clarke (Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller), alongside white session musician Baron, (Aveev Isaacson, possibly donning a scouse accent). The trio are shortly joined by Matilda (Hannah Omisore), a young black woman, invited by Clarke to provide creative input onto Skye’s music. Racism is core to the tension that drives the plot. As the chemicals in the walls seep into our characters minds, Skye’s non-racist facade begins to fade, and aggression evolves in baby steps away from passive and becomes more direct. The play is enthralling as we watch the drama unfold and the relationships deteriorate.
Emily Moment portrays the slow descent from arrogant musician into something more sinister superbly well, through dirty looks, body language, and subtly barbed verbal jabs, there’s always a slight ambiguity to what’s going on in Skye’s head right up until the mask falls and shatters onto the ground. Opposite Moment, Omisore well encapsulates a shy, unassuming, almost meek Matilda, who doesn’t quite know how to own the talent she possesses because of the place society has put her as a black woman. Omisore then transitions the performance brilliantly into what is first strength in the face of adversity, then into a retaliatory madness as we reach the climax. Brimmer-Beller puts in a solid performance as Clarke, a man putting his desire to make money from the night in the studio ahead of his personal feelings on racism, though this was perhaps slightly undercooked, the extent of his internal conflict (or lack of) on this matter could have been developed more. Isaacson’s Baron serves as a mild foil to Skye, and provides quips of comic relief, and is performed well by Isaacson.
Music is a key feature of In Everglade Studio, with whole songs performed intermittently during the play, though this was done as part of the plot as the cast were recording songs in the studio, rather than how a musical might see its cast break out suddenly into a number. The songs throughout are excellently written and composed by Brimmer-Beller and Isaacson, and well performed live on stage by the whole cast. They were smartly used to convey mood, or allowed the cast to use expression and movement to suggest the current state of relationships to the audience. The only critique that they were sometimes a bit long, and would slow the pacing, particularly early on in the performance.
In Everglade Studio finishes in an unrecognisable place from how it begins, owing to the characters going insane, and exacerbated by the tensions of not really liking each other that much to begin with. The journey the characters go on over the fateful night is thoroughly entertaining, gently funny at times, but predominantly satisfying for a uniquely chaotic spin on a victim of racism overcoming the attitudes they’re faced with that seek to bring them down.