No View from the Window – 24:7 Theatre Festival, Manchester
Writer: Rebecca Mahon and Kim Jackson
Director: Kim Gillespie
Reviewer: Ruth Lovett
The Public Reviews Rating: 
We meet Louise in a grim, outdated and unloved bathroom; seeking sanctuary from the world downstairs.
It is clear from the outset that Louise feels a deep connection to this room and is quite territorial about it. The room is bringing back lots of memories for Louise from living her dreams in the bathroom mirror may they be ideas of being a pop star or a dancer to her unpleasant relationship with her mother.
As the production moves along we learn that the bathroom is in Louise’s mother’s house who has recently died and the family are all downstairs at the wake. The bathroom is providing solace from the family members who are picking over the dead mother’s trinkets.
In the 50 minutes we spend in the bathroom with Louise we discover that her mother has always been short tempered with Lousie and largely disinterested in her. This leads to Louise developing a fantasy life for herself that is lived out it the bathroom and keeping secrets from her mother.
The arrival of a new boyfriend for Louise’s mother marks another change in Louise’s life that leads her to become more introverted and secretive and the tale culminates in a macabre and harrowing revelation.
It can be difficult to watch Louise falling apart as she relives some haunting experiences that have taken place in the bathroom however at times I would have liked to have seen more depth of emotion and more despair and torment to really engage the audience and push the story along. At times the audience are acutely aware that the entire piece is gearing up towards to a poignant ending but some scenes are too hurried and the significance of some of the tales not explicit enough, occasionally reverting to mild humour or over use of unnecessary canned sound effects.
Credit must be given to Rebecca Mahon for captivating the audience’s attention single handily for the duration and with a little work this could be a powerful and dramatic piece.
Runs until 1st August
Tags: 24:7 Theatre Festival, Fringe, Kim Gillespie, Manchester, No View from the Window, Rebecca Mahon, Tangled Web Productions
5:15 pm on July 27th, 2010
I feel this reviewer missing the point from what I could see the character was not at the point of despair, she had made a decision about how to resolve years of torment. The humour came across as the characters personality and her coping mechanism. It felt to me a totally all consuming journey and the significance of each story replayed in my head at the conclusion of the play. All aspects layered up perfectly and I was blown away by the powerful tour de force performance.