There's a lot to digest even with this play's short runtime: work is required to bring it all together, but there’s something rather interesting going on here. Rating
Excellent!
“I’ve done a lot of drugs” as an opening line of the strangely titled 7-7-7 is probably as good an explanation as anything for what follows. Because come the end of the show, my own first thought is that drugs may be needed to enable me to sleep tonight. Otherwise, I might spend all night tossing and turning trying to fathom what the f*** I just watched!
Colin Rayner is certainly a compelling watch. His stage presence, and especially his physical work as he often fits and shakes on the floor, is impressive. But even before we get to that, his entrance, almost creeping down the side of the audience, grinning, looking rather sheepish at disturbing us, is all superbly played out. Then, as he glides around the small round table upon which sits a red telephone, the only element of set or prop, he gives his declaration about drugs and philosophy and then a tirade about the pointlessness of life and whether we really have any control over what we do with it. It all sounds rather deep and heavy, but it’s liberally laced with humour to break up any risk of weighing itself down upon his philosophical monologues. Even when he muses on whether Hitler even had a choice about his actions, or whether it was all pre-ordained, it’s asked in a way that is more humorous than shocking.
Introduction over and more drugs consumed (performer not audience, however much we might want them by this point), and there’s a notable change in style. Gone is the jovial host asking audience members if they think they are good people, replaced by a collection of reincarnations, each ending in death, often multiples! It all leads to even more questions over our ability to choose our own destination. Each reincarnation suggests different possibilities as to what really controls us: religion, mental health (although perhaps these two are one and the same?), a brain tumour. Even aliens get a generous mention, as if they are an obvious possibility. It’s perplexing but still compelling to watch as he rushes through each life and each death and questions if any of the bodies he possesses really got to make their own choices.
Rayner’s performance, both physically and in his delivery of what are often rants, holds all the madness together. But while it makes for an interesting watch, perhaps it still needs a stronger identity just to give the show more solidity and purpose. Especially the ending, where we’re all sitting there wondering if that is it or if he is coming back!
At just under 40 minutes, there is certainly room to build upon his ideas, although whether the audience, or Rayner himself, could handle more of its current content is a question that would need to be answered. Whatever it’s about, it’s an interesting and compelling watch that will leave you either questioning your sanity or making you wonder what the hell you just sat through.
Written by Colin Rayner
7-7-7 plays at Barons Court Theatre until Sunday 9 August as part of Camden Fringe.
