3 ½ *s
All The World’s A Stage provides a mix-and-match evening of original student writing, with a series of shorts playing out over the course of an hour. The first half is structured like a sketch show – with an X Factor style show struggling to cope post-Simon, and a director and his audience at odds with each other – but shifts into something more experimental in the latter half. It’s a short, sharp, and witty evening that will provide a welcome break from deadline stress.
The writing of the dialogue and the jokes is very strong. Although the format does let this down at times, the writers (Yee Heng Yeh and Ian Sheard) should be commended for such an adventurous idea, strong premises, and moments of utter genius. I particularly enjoyed the sketch between a council worker (Will Kitchen) and the computerised voice of his psycho-analysis machine, which was a hilarious yet sinister moment of brilliant voice acting. In addition, the meta-narrative created in the final piece was ambitious and contained moments of dialogue of philosophical and lyrical excellence.
The format of the play is unusual, and it doesn’t quite work all the way through. Each scene in the first half plays out like a comedy sketch, which means that they do slightly lose their momentum after the first five minutes. Whilst each premise is undoubtedly strong, and the actors are more than competent at carrying the show, there are bits that would have perhaps worked better if they had been condensed into a sketch show length rather than stretched out. In particular, the final scene between a dictator and his prisoner seems extremely long in comparison to the rest of the show, and could have sustained a stand-alone show by itself.
The same five actors multi-role to create a fully fleshed-out universe, and each play their part with an absurd conviction that perfectly complements the surreal style of the show. Arnaud Lacey and Will Kitchen were both funny and skilled multi-rollers, shifting effortlessly between roles. Ronan Lee and Sam Morris also did well to capture both the absurdism and drama of their meta-theatrical skit. Beth Angella was hilariously convincing in her assortment of roles, although I did feel that all of her characters were quite similar in that they were primarily frustrated, and it would have been nice if the script had allowed the female characters to be as distinguishable and varied as the male ones.
Despite some format issues, All The World’s A Stage is an inventive and highly entertaining experience, with hilarious performances and a madcap script creating an evening of theatre unlike anything you’ve experienced before. It is absolutely the kind of theatre that should be encouraged: experimental, absurd, and daring.
Edited by Jess Greaney
Get tickets: http://newtheatre.org.uk/whats-on/
Sources:
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