Review: Don’t Panic, Etcetera Theatre

Much like rats in London, it seems that you are never more than six feet away from a dystopian play that imagines the world is doomed. Now I’m not saying that as a bad thing, because it’s really all about what you do with that story that matters. Sometimes a dystopian world drawing its last breath can be utterly beautiful in how it presents itself and its inhabitants to us, and sometimes it can be so bad you wish the world really would end just to get the play over and done with.

Don’t Panic, you will not be surprised to hear, is a dystopian play about a world that may be about to end. But most importantly it is a dystopian play that falls very much in the category of beautiful. What elevates it immediately is that it avoids the usual setting for such plays of an underground bunker where the inhabitants haven’t seen any other humans for years. Instead, it’s set in a theatre space, where performances are still happening, so yes, our protagonists have not been isolated from other humans for years. We know this because the show begins just after the theatre has closed for another night and the only people left inside are the two stagehands cleaning up after a performance. It’s a wonderful idea, allowing them to be stuck together without it being in yet another desolate bunker.

Of course, a clever setting isn’t a guarantee of success. But clever written is, and Taylor Carmen’s script provides just that. It’s subtle, taking its time to introduce the realities of the world outside. If you hadn’t read the show blurb beforehand you could easily be fooled into thinking this is just two people discussing the importance of art to get us through dark times. The realities of the outside world are slowly drip-fed to us, making it all the more effective. It leads to the script feeling extremely natural, there is no forced explanations of the how’s and why’s of where we are. That natural feel is just as present within its soft humour.

It means we are treated to a play about Mani (writer Carmen) and Kid (Gabrielle-Norma Griffin) discussing the beauty and power of nature, of their dreams of smelling real trees and their fears of a corrupt government suppressing them. We watch the realism and pragmatism of Mani pitted against the optimism and fears of Kid, both slowly finding mutual ground to meet upon. It’s clever, it’s moving, and it’s all rather unexpected.

Kay Brattan’s directing draws even more beauty from the performance. She has a flair for movement which is so evident here. A scene where the pair imagine being outside in nature culminates in them dancing with plastic sheets. It is simply stunning, the moment would not feel out of place on the stage of Sadler’s Wells in the midst of a ballet. Carmen and Griffin are simply a joy to watch, not just for this scene but for the whole performance.

Equally as impressive is the soundscape created. It can’t be described as beautiful as it is the sounds of the world outside the theatre: sirens and air raid warnings and radio transmissions, all used to place us in the right location at the right time. But it can be described as effective. 

At just 45 minutes there is room to expand on the world Carmen has already created, and perhaps the only reason for not awarding this five stars. It’s a simple, beautiful, joyful piece of theatre that shows that dystopian worlds can be set in the real world and be all the better for it.

Written by Taylor Carmen
Directed by Kay Brattan
Produced by Roman Cowboy Production

Don’t Panic plays at Etcetera Theatre until Saturday 25 April.