Review: There is a Light and a Whistle for Attracting Attention, Jack Studio Theatre

There’s much to admire in There is a Light and a Whistle for Attracting Attention, a bold, heartfelt solo show written and performed by Henri Merriam. Intense, immediate and deeply personal, it’s a production that grabs the audience early and holds their attention with a mix of emotional honesty and theatrical ingenuity.

From the outset, Merriam proves herself a compelling stage presence. Her performance is dynamic and nuanced: energetic and playful one moment, sorrowful and raw the next. The writing matches this physicality with a muscular, no-nonsense style. After a brief exposition, the piece quickly establishes its central theme: the slow-motion trauma of a relationship breakdown. What follows is a clear-eyed, emotionally rich account of what it feels like to watch someone fall out of love with you, a pain many in the audience will find deeply relatable.

This is far from a one-note monologue. Merriam’s script is supported by thoughtful direction and inventive staging. A pre-recorded voice gives life to the absent partner, and a cleverly orchestrated audio chorus of house-share friends serves as a kind of omniscient, Greek-chorus-style commentary. These audio layers lend texture and complexity to the performance, allowing Merriam to remain physically alone on stage while still surrounded by a world of voices and judgments.

The central relationship is rendered with painful clarity. The boyfriend is sexist, lazy, and emotionally manipulative, yet Merriam resists turning the story into a simple tale of victimhood. Hints of ambiguity creep in: the protagonist may have a drinking problem, and there’s a creeping sense that she might not be a wholly reliable narrator. This moral shading adds welcome tension and complexity to what could otherwise be a familiar narrative arc.

Design-wise, the production is full of neat touches. A chest of drawers bursts open with props and visual cues, giving a physical shape to the chaos inside the protagonist’s mind. At one point the stage is as cluttered and confused as her emotional world, only to be gradually tidied and packed away. It’s a subtle visual metaphor for the process of healing, or perhaps repression.

Yet despite all this clarity and confidence in the storytelling, the piece slightly loses its footing toward the end. The final moments become more abstract, and it’s not entirely clear what reflection or takeaway Merriam wants to leave us with. For a piece so meticulous in its emotional mapping, the lack of a resonant final note feels like a missed opportunity. It’s as if the story was so well-told, so alive in the moment, that the deeper commentary was left undeveloped or deliberately out of reach.

Still, There is a Light and a Whistle for Attracting Attention is a strong and promising piece of theatre. It’s a showcase for a talented performer and writer, one who clearly has both the courage and the skill to mine personal pain for artistic power. A sharper sense of resolution would certainly elevate it further, but even in its current form, it’s a compelling hour of theatre that deserves to be seen. Once again, the reliable Jack Studio Theatre proves adept at curating some of the best fringe theatre for its deservedly loyal audience.

Written by: Henri Merriam
Directed by: Sophia Capasso
Set Design by: Shahaf Beer
Lighting Design by: Holly Ellis
Sound Design by: Frazer Merrick
Co-Produced by: Mark Finbow
Tech Operators: Mark Fawcett, Jack Rudd and Emily Wilson
Dramaturg: Nicola Sanderson
Presented by Play Nicely Theatre and supported by The Seagull Theatre

There is a Light and a Whistle for Attracting Attention plays at Jack Studio Theatre until Saturday 14 June.