Tron Theatre, Glasgow
5 stars
When Anthony Neilson’s bubble-bursting exploration of one woman’s voyage inside her own head premiered at the fag-end of 2004’s Edinburgh International Festival, it was that year’s wild card. A gloriously flamboyant and utterly serious lurch into a multi-coloured underworld most of us daren’t imagine, it was too a daringly of-the-moment experience. Two and a half years on, Neilson’s National Theatre Of Scotland revival remains an equally dazzling trip into the dark side.
As Lisa Jones goes in search of the hour she lost, she lands in a topsy-turvy kingdom peopled by fantastical cartoon grotesques. With them, it seems, every day can be a musical. As Lisa goes deeper into this strange new home, however, demons loom ever more threateningly, and deep within the psychedelic fantasia are hints of domestic and sexual abuse.
Seen in The Tron’s up close and personal space, Neilson’s play becomes even more invasively powerful than when it first played Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum. Especially when the second half‘s clinical flip-side up-ends the first act’s Oz-like trappings. Here, however, while there really is no place like home, it’s for all the wrong reasons.
Such theatrical audacity makes for a disturbing and still surprising experience. Neilson’s eight-strong ensemble relishes in the first half’s magical-realist vaudeville, though it is Christine Entwisle’s brilliant portrayal of Lisa that stands out. A heartbreaking study of understated vulnerability, while she clearly enjoys bouncing off each increasingly bizarre situation, she’s quietly unflinching in her lack of sentimentality. For audiences, this is an unmissable experience for Entwisle’s performance alone. In the mad world Neilson has created, however, there’s a whole other world to cherish.
The Herald, March 5th 2007
ends
5 stars
When Anthony Neilson’s bubble-bursting exploration of one woman’s voyage inside her own head premiered at the fag-end of 2004’s Edinburgh International Festival, it was that year’s wild card. A gloriously flamboyant and utterly serious lurch into a multi-coloured underworld most of us daren’t imagine, it was too a daringly of-the-moment experience. Two and a half years on, Neilson’s National Theatre Of Scotland revival remains an equally dazzling trip into the dark side.
As Lisa Jones goes in search of the hour she lost, she lands in a topsy-turvy kingdom peopled by fantastical cartoon grotesques. With them, it seems, every day can be a musical. As Lisa goes deeper into this strange new home, however, demons loom ever more threateningly, and deep within the psychedelic fantasia are hints of domestic and sexual abuse.
Seen in The Tron’s up close and personal space, Neilson’s play becomes even more invasively powerful than when it first played Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum. Especially when the second half‘s clinical flip-side up-ends the first act’s Oz-like trappings. Here, however, while there really is no place like home, it’s for all the wrong reasons.
Such theatrical audacity makes for a disturbing and still surprising experience. Neilson’s eight-strong ensemble relishes in the first half’s magical-realist vaudeville, though it is Christine Entwisle’s brilliant portrayal of Lisa that stands out. A heartbreaking study of understated vulnerability, while she clearly enjoys bouncing off each increasingly bizarre situation, she’s quietly unflinching in her lack of sentimentality. For audiences, this is an unmissable experience for Entwisle’s performance alone. In the mad world Neilson has created, however, there’s a whole other world to cherish.
The Herald, March 5th 2007
ends
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