Review of Olympia/Paper Thin

"Double bill of great writing!" by Caroline Boulton for remotegoat on 26/02/08

This double bill at Barons Court presented by First Draft Theatre Company starts off with Olympia by Katy Darby and Directed by David Weinberg.

Olympia tells the urban tale of a homeless immigrant found unconscious on the tube late one night. She doesn't speak, is malnourished and hasn't seen daylight for years. Her story soon captures the imagination of hack reporter Andy Higgs ready and willing to exploit her. He endlessly interviews the terrified girl to discover her hidden past and she slowly begins to unveil herself to him but is much more intelligent then she seems and soon gives him the slip.

With a cast of 6 this production developed well and followed a steady pace. A character full performance from Jack Roth kept me really interested and it was a great cynical view of modern media culture but I would love to see this developed further and the text worked it which I felt was a little un ambitious and let down the actors who could clearly handle more.

The second play of this double bill was Paper Thin. Written by Anna Jordan and directed by Alison King this was fantastically staged with the best use of the limited space at Barons Court I've ever seen at this venue.

The claustrophobic theme of this production suited it perfectly. Centred around two conflicted couples stuck on the 16th floor of a tower block with a frequently broken lift, this play demonstrates perfectly the simmering tensions of claustrophobic council housing. Each scene overlapped through the paper-thin walls of the flats so after hearing half a conversation through the wall we then moved next door to fill in the blanks of what we missed. This created a wonderful dramatic effect of waiting for the lines half already heard to be said in the next scene.

The cast of four were all superb, with fantastic staging, a simple but effective set and this great use of eaves dropping all come together to create a highly effective production which I thoroughly enjoyed and would easily watch again.

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