An imaginative but messy show that could do with reining in a few of its wilder instincts.Summary
Rating
OK
Directed and written by Dominic Hedges and with original music by The Weaver Line, this show asks many questions: what will be the full extent of the ecological damage we feel fast coming down the line; will the scars on our landscapes be as deep as the scars on our collective psyches and will there be any hope of eventual recovery?
Worthy questions, but very quickly lost in highly convoluted and ineffective narrative layers that focus on abstract character vignettes and deal with topics as disparate as child experimentation, amnesia, grief and even music. It’s a scattershot approach that fails to hit much, if any, of its target and suggests an unrestrained devising of the show’s story, badly in need of a stronger directorial pass to get its various parts working in harmony. As it is, things rarely coalesce around any coherent point and the twist ending in particular is quite unsatisfying.
The performances, however, are noteworthy. While the adult actors (Grace Over and Samantha Nixon) play their parts well, the younger ones lend a raw quality to theirs with mixed results. Rufus Harwood and Anton Wild spark wonderfully as The Actor and The Artist respectively, while Sadie O’Sullivan as The Sister could do with pacing her delivery as it’s often difficult to make out her words in the excited manner they’re given. Finally, while Elanor Bilbrough as The Singer is occasionally wooden in her performance, the live vocals she delivers over the show’s soundtrack are delightful.
Less mixed are the multi-media appendages tacked onto the story. Often, video is projected onto a screen set to the back of the stage, showing off anything from drone footage of flooded roads, archival music performances or at one stage (quite inadvisedly) a crude jumpscare. None of these assist the story-telling in any clear way and only serve to make proceedings feel jumbled and jarring. The show would be much better off either ditching these elements entirely or finding stronger justification for their inclusion.
Ultimately everything feels as if it’s been thrown at the wall here, and very little sticks. There’s quality to unearth deep down, but significant further refinement is needed to bring it to bear.
Directed and Written by Dominic Hedges
Original Music by The Weaver Line
Assistant Direction by Sally Horowitz
Lighting Design/Operation by Venus Raven
Will You Love Me Tomorrow has completed its run at the Omnibus Theatre
