A homely one-woman piece, sharing stories of youth. Showcasing the harsh effects of climate change and struggles with moving from home to another country to find your identity.
A homely one-woman piece, sharing stories of youth. Showing the harsh effects of climate change and struggles with moving from home to another country to find your identity whilst managing the pressures of family, society and work. Hats off to the fabulous actress Sidora Provato for remembering 60 minutes of writing and working alongside a TV as a cast member. “Bodies by the sea” the fleeting, repeated line that should’ve been MORE. The story itself is haunting, tragic and heart wrenching.
As you walk in, the scene is set; you’re hit with beautiful Greek tunes. The stage was split between the character’s two worlds. On the Greek side, there is a chair, rocking chair, sofa, a tv, a dresser box and two blue Mediterranean style wooden windows. It gives the feel of moving house. Then, on the London side of the stage is a chair, desk, ipad, pair of heels and a bottle of water. I do admire that the actress has a bottle of water that is British (on the London side) and water with Greek writing on it for the Greek side, I loved this attention to detail. The actress shows her character change clearly in the two sets; in London she is head down, stressed and busy. Then, in Greece she is fun, free and goes back to her childhood self.
However, there is nothing clear to show the Greek home is burnt other than shaking the blankets thrown over the chair and the actress coughing. If I hadn’t read this piece of information in the synopsis before attending the show, I wouldn’t have been aware of this. This should be shared at the start, it seems more like it’s a house that’s not been used for a long while and she’s going back to it for the first time in years. It’s not until she says what happened later in the piece that you’d realise.
The acting, whilst energetic and excitable, felt disconnected from the tragic story, there didn’t seem to be any character development or connected emotion towards the story. Any emotion often felt short lived. There was a build up to the reveal of what happened to the mother, that felt like when it happened it was explained within a few minutes and then, we went on to hear about the character’s new love life? This made me question the relevance of the love interest from her childhood.
The life after the event with the grief and frustration towards what had happened felt rushed. As an audience member I didn’t feel the impact of the situation or experience how the life changed. How did this event change the character? I didn’t feel emotion towards the story I just felt like I was concentrating so hard on what was going on, trying not to get lost in the speed.
However, I did admire Sidora Provato’s energy and child-like excitement when reliving stories of the character’s youth. This gave me enjoyment throughout the piece. I just needed to see the changes and development through the emotions, and more more time taken throughout telling the story. For example, the piece was supposed to be an hour and it finished 10 minutes early.
I think this piece needs more of a battle between the character’s struggle to find her identity when she lives in two worlds. It also needs to go through those emotions of grief and as it is set in the here and now, greater discussion and deep-diving into the topics of wildfires and climate change. We are aware that this is still happening and let’s see the reality of ‘living by sheer chance everyday’.