.JPG)
Southwark Playhouse
Reviewed on Tuesday 21st May 2013
This inaugural production at the new Southwark Playhouse deserves full marks for ingenuity. However, it lacks the tension and attack needed to make this metaphorical and literal battle of the sexes a convincing and engaging piece of theatre.
Tanzi Libre is a biographical account of a London girl's rise to champion wrestler, told through the medium of ten wrestling matches... obviously! The space is set up as a wrestling arena, complete with DJ (The Riddler) providing an excellent soundtrack as soon as you walk into the room. At the centrepiece is a full wrestling ring; this is the first piece of theatre I have ever seen that truly successfully manages to pull off performing in the round.
The evening is set up as a series of matches and is adeptly hosted by the Ref, Mark Rice-Oxley, whose genius of inflection allows his tone to take that of a charisma-less wrestling official and, simultaneously, of an ironic self-acknowledging actor. His self-referencing extends into the entire script: the play repeatedly makes fun of itself and as a result the whole evening is very playful and tongue-in-cheek.
The fun continues into the cast, who were evidently greatly enjoying doing this show. All the actors have fun with their characters, especially Kazeem Tosin Amore, who hit the nail as the cocky yet charming teenage Dean Rebel and he believably hardens as the character gets older, and Meryl Fernandes, who plays her Barbie doll character with infinite warmth, although I do wonder whether she meant to have quite that much bottom on display!
A massive part of the show was the choreographed fights and it seemed to take the cast a while to warm up into them. At first their lack of potency and overly deliberate delivery left me unconvinced but by the final fight between Dean Rebel and Tanzi, I had almost started to believe the sounds that I was hearing were the sounds of heads hitting the floor rather than a foot stamp, as it was in reality.
Because this show has such complex choreography and has clearly required a lot of rehearsal time, I feel that other aspects of the show have suffered. Some of the dialogue lacks clarity of direction and becomes a little dull. As a result some characters, although not all, are under-developed. There are a handful of songs in the show and due to low sound quality and the under-par singing from the actors I struggled to hear the lyrics and, in a few cases, the tune.
The show's transgressions are somehow forgiveable because of the light-hearted approach that this production takes and its ability to not take itself too seriously. The story and characters may not necessarily be the most engaging in theatreland at the moment, but the specific style and uniqueness of story-telling certainly is.
Reviewed by Ted McMillan
Tanzi Libre runs at the Southwark Playhouse until 22nd June 2013.
Please visit www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk fur further information and tickets.
Ted Perhaps you need to get out of London and see some 'Theatre's in the Round'!!!!! Come to the New Vic in Newcastle under Lyme
ReplyDelete