Reeling – 24:7 Theatre Festival, Manchester
Writer: Sean Gregory
Director: Richard Vergette
Reviewer: Jo Beggs
The Public Reviews Rating: 
During her mother’s wake, Alice stumbles into the house next door, home to the rather sinister Mr Melks, only to find Melks vanished and a trunk full of cassette tapes on which he has, over many years, recorded the comings and goings of her family through the flimsy walls. The initial shock of the situation soon turns to fascination and when her sister comes to find her, they embark on a journey back through the sometimes mundane, sometimes funny and sometimes painful episodes of their lives.
Alice (Louise-Clare Henry) is the one who stayed whilst older sister Jude (Joanne Smart) took off to college, got married and detached herself from the family. There’s a lot of resentment on both sides and it all comes out as moments from their past are relived through the contents of the tapes. Hearing conversations from the past gives the girls a chance for belated apologies, an opportunity to reassess their memories and make some more mature assessments. The father who left seems an altogether more sympathetic character, their mother less uptight and proper. Suddenly the creepy guy with the microphone next door seems to have had a less sinister purpose.
Once you put aside the practical questions (what normal person would remember the actual dates they had certain conversations on? Just how did he make these high quality recordings through the wall anyway?) and embrace the dramatic device, the play takes on a slightly repetitive rhythm as one family secret after another is revealed, but there are just enough twists and turns to sustain it for its full hour.
Rather less convincing is the play’s strange and clunky pace. Starting with disjointed, unemotional delivery it soon veers into lots of clichéd shouting and arm waving punctuated by long, drawn out moments of the two girls gazing into space as they re-live their youth. This doesn’t help a play which already has a directorial lack of focus(Richard Vergette.) The huge case of cassette tapes – as visually interesting a prop as you’re likely to get in paired down one act play of this kind – has its ‘back’ to the audience, and when open the lid creates a huge barrier between the performance and the audience. If this is a deliberate (to suggest Alice’s claustrophobic world?) it misses the mark.
Recorded sound is effectively used. Not only some good vocal performances (particularly Ruth Evans as the girls’ mother) but also distinctive original music by Josephine, and credit should go to Technical Director Joel Clements for a pulling it all together very neatly.
It’s a shame that some of the quieter moments of the play were disturbed by sound leakage from the other stage next door, a problem which has dogged 24:7 in the past and doesn’t seem to have been solved with this new, all-in-one venue.
Runs until the 1st August
Tags: 24:7 Theatre Festival, Fringe, Joanne Smart, Louise-Clare Henry, Manchester, Piece of Work Theatre Company, Reeling, Richard Vergette, Ruth Evans, Sean Gregory
1:21 am on July 28th, 2010
“It’s a shame that some of the quieter moments of the play were disturbed by sound leakage from the other stage next door, a problem which has dogged 24:7 in the past and doesn’t seem to have been solved with this new, all-in-one venue.”
I find this comment to be both snobbish and unhelpful. We are of course aware of this problem, but you should appreciate the budgetary constraints within which the Festival operates. We do not seek to replicate the plush velvet cocoon of a mainstream theatre.
By all means offer an opinion, but I would also invite you to celebrate with us the talent and commitment on show through 24:7. Over seven annual events we have presented 123 new plays and entertained more than 20,000 audience members, many of whom insist on coming back year after year.
Sincerely
David Slack
Director, 24:7 Theatre Festival