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Not so much Chekhov's gun as Chekhov's needle, but whatever the case, the result is simply too much of a mishmash of different patterns.Summary
Rating
Ok
Rapture really doesn’t start well. Mae (Rebecca Hunt) and Jonathan (Arno van Zelst), mother and younger son, are waiting for son/brother Eric (Huw Landauer) to arrive to commemorate the fourth anniversary of their father’s death. But from the opening lines there’s an immediate problem because the conversation just has no ‘oomph’. The two speak in normal conversational tones, seemingly without any effort to project their voices out to the audience. There’s also a lack of energy from the actors, no punch to their delivery, and within minutes, they already risk losing the audience. It all feels rather under-rehearsed and lacking in strong direction from writer Sebastião Marques Lopes.
This is a real shame as there’s an interesting idea at the heart of the play that is never properly explored. Eric is bright and driven, working for an organisation sending people to Mars to escape this dying planet, and he’s heavily involved in the selection process. Meanwhile, Jonathan is just drifting through life, still living at home with his mother. But tonight is their chance to talk about Eric getting a place on the next shuttle to Mars and being part of a bright new future.
At least that is how the story starts out. But there seems an absolute lack of focus in the writing, which then jumps from one idea to another without ever fully developing any of them. One moment Eric is feeling hijacked by his brother’s attempts to land a seat on the shuttle, the next he is there to admit he is leaving for Mars himself, then five minutes later the story takes another hard left and it’s Mum who is now pushing for a seat herself. It would all be perfectly fine if we could see the thread holding all of these together. Instead, it feels like half a dozen people wrote an act each without ever conferring to ensure the parts slotted together properly. There’s ample room for family tension and debate about the greater good over family loyalty, and who gets to decide who lives or dies. And had Rapture wanted to be this story, the building blocks are all there. But then it twists again, and Paul (Aidan Parsons) enters to add a sinister turn to events. Except its just another change of direction that makes it feel like a completely different story once more.
Inbetween all this, we have additional narrative that suggests more than is ever delivered. There’s the oft mentioned Nanna; there’s the revelation that Eric does have spare tickets and some suggestion this means he is taking his wife’s family; there’s just so many things thrown in that it’s impossible to work out what the writer is thinking, with these ideas appearing to never go further than mere mention.
At least the knitting needles do follow Chekhov’s rule: if a knitting needle is produced in act one, then it must be used in the play (I’m fairly certain Chekhov used knitting needles for his example didn’t he?). But again, it is much too sharp a turn in events to really feel as if it belongs, with characters taking on entirely different personas to fit this new development – personas that feel at loggerheads with what has been shown before.
Rapture plays in conjunction with Stay Here and Die With Me, and you can see why, as both present bleak dystopian futures. Maybe its 9pm starting slot is to allow it to be road tested, but even if so, there is no excuse for what feels to be an under rehearsed and under prepared show. It needs to be completely stripped back to its core and started over if it is ever to be presented to a paying audience again.
Written and directed by: Sebastião Marques Lopes.
Produced by: Beth Graham
Rapture has completed its current run.
