Dial – Theatre Royal Studio, York

Writer – Gemma Head

Director – Kathryn Hanke

Reviewer – Sara Jackson

The Public Reviews Rating:

This is the first performance from Whiteface theatre and writer Gemma Head. It is set in a Call centre and shows the every day lives of the staff; the ambitious if slightly crazy boss, private lives and personality clashes that take place in an office environment. The centre is called Soul saver direct and takes calls from people having personal and financial problems. But like all call centre’s it has its targets to meet and Carol, the call centre boss played by Gemma Head has her own plan for meeting those targets.

The piece is very true to life and is based on experiences that Gemma Head had while working in a call centre. It has funny and tragic moments, which the cast move very smoothly and steadily through as the piece heads towards its rather obvious conclusion.

The Actors give solid performances, most notable is Jamie Smelt as Matt who manages to portray a vile, over cocky, manipulative bully but still shows us moments of vulnerability in his relationship with his mother. The cast show great comic timing and wonderful relationships, which develop nicely throughout the piece. Victoria Morris as Patty and Dermot Daly as Joshie complete a very tight team.

The piece showed great potential but felt very slow in places lacked pace and energy, it was a bit too long with several unnecessary scenes. The ending was very over the top and a bit uncomfortable and had it ended 2 minutes earlier would have made for a much stronger performance all around.

Although the program mentions a designer (Kathryn Hanke) it is difficult to see the contribution she has made. The minimal set, which consisted of a desk and a toilet sign on the back of a door, did not give enough atmosphere and it was very difficult to get the feeling of a call centre. There were no costume changes so you couldn’t grasp how much time had passed between days or weather any time had passed at all.

All in all entertaining and funny but would benefit from a better set and costumes and some more script development in places. Gemma shows great potential as a writer and is an unfound talent waiting to be developed.