the Angel Riots, bloody and out of love is a deliciously dark, expressionistic piece of art tailored to the feeling of abandonment and lost identity.
Alexander Gallimore’s abstract and spirited play is a grand piece of art which is truly expressionistic. Starring only two actors – Alexander Gallimore and Yoni Roodner – the use of space and physicality is magnificent. The story follows the two characters’ journeys through hardship and ultimately questions the type of homophobia created through religion.
Ex-lovers characters divide and conflict is centred around the hypothesis of where does sin go for when some people go to heaven. It highlights the fact that every single individual has in some way created sins yet go to heaven- so why is being gay, in some people’s eyes, just as bad as murders and rapists. How does this feeling affect the gay person? These themes
and questions lie central in the physical and absurd story telling. The immersive element of the actors constantly breaking the fourth wall and the seats being lined up either side (at some point Yoni Rooder placed his hand on an audience member’s shoulder and said a poem only to them) made the audience feel like they were the jury members to these questions. Although, at times this felt overdone and unnecessary with actors touching people’s legs (without consent). These moments didn’t aid the story alone.
The writing of this play was disjointed and worked beautifully with this style of play. There were moments where the writing felt overlooked as you either couldn’t hear it over the music or the actors were speaking together, (attempting to be) in time with one another. But this was done with them both speaking so quickly and loudly it ended up sounding muffled and one of them having to stop and start talking as couldn’t keep up.
The use of lighting was creative magic- at times lights were helped by Alexander Gallimore and were used with his physicality to show the characters distress and anger. Furthermore, the sound being used for voiceovers and scene changes was imaginative and seamless.
Overall, the play is very innovative and exploration packed with physicality brilliance. However, the message behind the play was often lost behind the shouting and immersive atmosphere. Many members of the audience left feeling confused by the ending as it was so abrupt almost as if the writer had decided that they needed to wrap things up quickly and executed that. The style of the performance was interesting and disturbing (in a good way) at moments but needs development for a better execution into storytelling.