Everything Theatre Reviews, interviews and news for theatre lovers, London and beyond
5 Kilo Sugar
Gur Joren
The Lights Turn Upon Me
Oded Liphshitz
St George’s Day
Georgina Burns
★★★
Pros: As this was a scripted read-through, it was a fantastic opportunity to hear some talented actors and the nuances of their voices.
Cons: Occasionally, the shows didn’t read very well. The scripts were not always polished.
Our Verdict: As a cultural event this show is enjoyable and while the plays are ok, they was hard to critique as they are scripted read-throughs. However, the voice acting is very strong with some talented raw performers.
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| Courtesy of Tik-sho-ret |
In terms of bridging the gap between cultures, theatre has huge potential as an art form. This joint venture between Tik-sho-ret and Sheer Drop is an attempt to bring Israeli and British playwrights together. The show itself consisted of three extracts from three different plays, two Israeli and one British. The first sees a young man haunted by his dead grandfather who wants him to change a story in an almost published book about the war. The second play surrounds a number of couples, all in the same apartment block and reveals their interactions and exchanges of partners. The third deals with class and poverty in Britain today, a middle class, middle aged man attempting to bring money and success into an estate in North London.
I can’t review this show based on a polished performances because it was never intending to be such a thing. What I can do is judge it on two things. Simple readings like these allow you to see the raw talent of the actors which exist before direction, costume and the rest of the production comes into it. In this respect, I found the majority of the actors entertaining and expressive. I also felt I could really listen to their voices a lot more and I found myself appreciating their accents and intonations. The other factor I can review this show on is the success at portraying the wider message. Here I think there were a number of different objectives. Firstly, an attempt to bring Israel and Britain together artistically and culturally and also represent the fact that a human is a human. All these little idiosyncrasies and complexities which make life so interesting don’t really change much across cultures. Essentially, we’re all the same.
While I recognise the importance of the collaborations between Tik-sho-ret and Sheer Drop, I’m not sure this particular show achieved their goal fully. It felt like two halves, two completely different shows, separate from each other. As a performance, these shows are enjoyable though nothing to get too excited about but I don’t think this was the point. I think the point was to bring together people from two countries separated by thousands of miles and perhaps also celebrate the diaspora who have made Britain their home (and accepted our flawed and eccentric culture) and who also have strong cultural and historical links to Israel. However, even though this was perhaps the message they wanted to pass on, what I walked away with was that people are just people and no matter which culture you’re from, human interaction a is complicated and intricate thing.
Please feel free to leave your thoughts and opinions in the comment section below!
Sadly, Lifgosh: To Meet has now finished but you can get information on Sheer Drop at www.sheerdroptheatre.co.uk and Tik-sho-ret at www.tik-sho-ret.co.uk.
New Diorama Theatre Box Office: 020 7383 9034 or online at http://newdiorama.com/
