Lightweight at times but exciting and enjoyable
Inspired by the life of netballing legend Tracey Neville, ‘The Other Neville’ is a fun and fast-paced piece, coming in at just over an hour. It really could have been longer, in fact, with some of the more interesting ideas feeling unexplored. Imogen Greenwood’s script is funny, with the jokes always landing, and it suits her performance perfectly. The percussive, driving music is great. The lighting felt a little underused, although the simplicity of the costumes does work, while the intimacy of the small stage adds to the thrill of the piece. The set is really simple: benches, black boxes, and a couple of microphones. The screen behind plays news clips and parts of real netball games, which does a great job of linking the events of the play to their wider context, easily one of the better uses of technology in theatre. The way the narrator interacts with the other performers, and the way they all interact with each other and the screen behind them is really interesting.
The projecting of real netball games, however, also reveals one of the piece’s flaws: the performers and script just don’t seem that interested in netball itself. The main netball sequence that’s acted out- not including the various drills and practice sessions shown- is underwhelming. ‘The Other Neville’ is much more interested in the dynamics of the different relationships onstage, and fortunately, they are interesting enough to more than make up for that. Some decisions come as total surprises, in a good way- the standout final scene in particular.
The play does rely on the audience coming to it with some knowledge of Tracey Neville’s life, not usually bothering to talk about the ‘reality’ of events onstage but focusing more on the emotions behind them or caused by them, at least once it gets going. It’s an interesting approach that shifts the emphasis away from narrative tension and onto how Tracey is impacted by her experiences. It’s not fully successful, with some of the later sequences lacking clarity, but it’s definitely intriguing and gives the piece lots of emotional depth.
Most importantly, ‘The Other Neville’ is entertaining, whatever you know about Tracey Neville. Having the other Nevilles- Phil and Gary, of course- played by women is a really interesting decision that more could have been done with. At times, the piece does feel a little too lightweight. That said, the exploration of how Tracey and her brothers were all impacted by gender roles, for example, could easily have lost some of its subtlety in a longer, more in-depth play.
Overall, ‘The Other Neville’ is exciting and makes some really intriguing, subtle decisions, but chooses not to go into them in favour of a short runtime that both helps and hinders it.
The Other Neville’s three-night run at 53Two, Manchester, has now concluded.
Like many of the reviews on this website, the writing is positive and upbeat with a highly detailed account of the performance.
It would be interesting to know the age of all these reviewers.