In terms of getting a show on with a cast of one, a tiny budget and minimal set, Mimi Poskitt has chosen well in this production, which sees Bristol Ferment return to the Old Vic Studio. The Window is a play with a theme, a play with a point of view, which in the best tradition of theatre ‘shows’ rather than merely explains what it is about. No mean feat for what is actually a monologue or perhaps, given the slightly tedious associations of that word, a piece of well crafted story telling.
Writer, Silva Semerciyan, has written a multi-textured play about women’s bodies, self-respect, self-doubt, trust and more generally, urban living. It may be that given the ideas she entertains in the piece, a one-woman exercise in storytelling was the only way to go. The demands of time and space in using a full cast would not have allowed the sudden and frequent changes in mood, which writer, director and actor have achieved – virtue out of necessity indeed.
Charlotte Melia, as the storyteller, turns in a commanding performance. Her style is the very lack of style in that she could be any intelligent, opinionated woman suffering anguish at what some may describe as low-level sexual harassment. She is in that sense, ‘everywoman’. However, what Semerciyan successfully succeeds in showing is that ‘even’ this kind of behaviour is not without consequences. Ultimately it is corrosive, not simply of relationships, but of society, of the bonds which hold us together within the family and, as here, in the looser networks of community. One could say it was a timely piece, but there again when wasn’t it relevant? The tragedy in the story is that the teller herself is damaged, not just in the obvious way as someone who has suffered assault of whatever severity, but in the way her originally sunny and caring nature ends in a callousness, which diminishes her as much as the act diminished the perpetrator.
Melia’s no frills, matter-of-fact, woman-next-door approach, provide the necessary ballast in the character’s journey from, ‘a kind of love’, for lonely neighbour, Ted (seen originally through ‘the window’), to a kind of hate after the sequence of events she relates. Clever one-liners are not oversold as we often find in second rate stand-up and the sudden bursts of righteous anger feel genuine rather than trumped up ‘dramatic’ for effect. It is a well-judged and compelling portrayal.
Timothy X Atack’s sound design is subtle and accurate in supporting the continuous moves through the emotional gears, as is the lighting. Overall this is a very accomplished piece of theatre and we look forward to more from all concerned. ★★★☆☆ Graham Wyles 23/10/14
Photo David Caudery
