There is birth and there is death and then there is the bit in between. In this new solo show from the Open Attic Theatre Company actor Adam Blake takes a humorous look at the inevitabilities in life. In one scene, helped by audience participation, Adam acts out a game show with the grim reaper as host. When and how would you like to die? One lucky soul gets to choose the time, method and place of his own death. In this case it was falling off a tightrope while crossing the Niagara Falls to meet his lover on the other side… and then being eaten but crocodiles below. By this time the audience were only too willing to take a role in Adam’s quest to explore our inescapable mortality and they gleefully join him onstage to perform the imagined death scene.
Birth & Death & Here & Now uses humour right from the start to bring light to some dark questions about our existence. Using puppets and props, some provided by the audience, the show starts with a birth and like most babies Adam’s has plenty of questions. The theme of death follows fairly quickly and it’s on this that the show focuses most of its time. Adam acts out a fight with the grim reaper who has previously explained that there has been an enormous length of time before we are born and that there will be a similarly vast period after we are dead. So why don’t we just round it down and cut out the middle bit?
Adam Blake is an engaging performer who fosters a warm connection with his audience through mime, puppetry and skillful banter. There are excellent puppets and masks from local company Pickled Image and the programme quite rightly mentions the many people who have contributed to the development of this show; their influence is clear in the subtle but important music, lighting, directing and props.
A sparsely set stage is gradually cleared of these props leaving Adam himself to hold on to our attention. At times he misses something in projecting pathos and the clowning seems a little contrived now and then but this only shows what a difficult skill that is. Although alone on stage Adam never looks isolated and his performance abilities carry us through without a pause to the end. He knows how to build the tension that makes us laugh and creates a feeling that in the show, much like in life, we are all in this together. In one part Adam asks if maybe we can live for ever, but would you want to? At just an hour long you can’t expect answers to the questions that have burdened philosophers over the millennia but you will see an entertaining and charming performance. ★★★☆☆ Adrian Mantle 2nd March 2016
