Review: I Made You A Mixtape, The Cockpit

The 90s are in vogue, and it’s easy to see why. This was an era of robust economic growth, the Cold War was over, and with it came a sense of optimism and joy, and a can-do spirit that permeated everything from politics to pop culture. The millennium was just around the corner, full of promise. 

Response Theatre Company’s I Made You a Mixtape captures the exuberance of the 90s with a coming-of-age production about nine young women (Abbey Devoy, Alexa Stevens, Amy Punter, Clair Gleave, Jennifer Kehoe, Katrina Lopes, Maggie Trepanier, Lauren O’Sullivan, Tatiana Ivanova) on their final night of university. Tomorrow, their lives diverge, but tonight they party. 

The production opens with a handwritten poster declaring that the show is not a play, not a dance show, and definitely not a musical. So what exactly is Mixtape? Response Theatre bills itself as the UK’s first Meisner-based movement theatre company. The Meisner method trains actors to be present, to lean into instinct, and to respond to their truth on stage: the same philosophy is blended into dance in Mixtape, creating a fresh form of performance. While including some fixed choreography, the action on stage reflects the performer’s intuitive response to the cue cards and the music. No two performances are exactly alike.

Audiences are transported into a 90s college dorm with half-filled boxes scattered about. The stage is a treasure trove of nostalgia. There’s a large Green Day poster, Friends (of course) merchandise, a cassette stereo system, a camcorder, board games and cards, and the iconic red Solo cups. The set offers an Americanised, if not romanticised, version of the 90s, backed by a banger mixtape. 

Pop culture was unapologetically BIG in the 90s, the era of the Spice Girls, Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. Alas, audiences looking for a more pop-inspired mixtape will be sorely disappointed by the set list. They are instead treated to a delicious line-up of some of the biggest 90s alt-rock hits from the likes of Matchbox 20, the Offspring, Blink 182, Barenaked Ladies, No Doubt, and Alanis Morissette, powered by a live drummer (Oliver Davies) and guitarist (Tom Kirkpatrick). With the characters’ lives about to change, the raw emotions of alt-rock feel like a fitting soundtrack for one last night of abandon.

The performance is energetic and instantly cathartic – there’s wild dancing, screaming, colourful costumes (hello leopard print tops and cargo pants), and 90s props brandished with vigour over the course of the nine vignettes. Individual performances are seamlessly interspersed with group routines, and occasionally, an audience member gets pulled on stage to join the party. Being genre agnostic, the show incorporates a range of dance forms. It’s the first time I’ve seen jazz, waacking, breakdancing, and contemporary dance styles performed to alt-rock music; an unlikely pairing, but one that works.

While the music and choreography are standouts, the production could make better use of its physical world. The use of the props and set sometimes feels superficial, more reminiscent of a teeny-bopper MTV segment than a fully realised performance. Set pieces such as the beer pong table remain largely under-utilised and seem to serve no real purpose aside from being a backdrop. Despite the minor drawbacks, the show is an experimental triumph. It’s a rare production that pulsates with infectious joy from start to finish and dares to create something different. 

There’s something uplifting about the 90s that continues to inspire, and if a return to the era means more interesting theatre, I’m here for it.

Director/Choreographer: Christie Lee Manning
Producer: Lauren O’Sullivan
Company & Stage Manager: Cora Frank
Sound Technician: Oliver Davies
Lighting Design/Programming: Denis Zimmerman, Cora Frank

I Made You a Mixtape has concluded its run at the Cockpit and heads to the Space Triplex at Edinburgh Fringe this summer.