The Project A graduates of 2024 bow out with a disturbing exploration of what it means to disappear – or be ‘disappeared’, as can happen to those who have no say in the matter.
Fin Kennedy’s award-winning play of 2005 is based on a book of the same name by Doug Richmond that was published 20 years earlier and also inspired a track by Radiohead.
With its long character list and edgy feel, it was a good choice for this 18-strong Project A cohort to show what they’ve learned over the past year on the Theatre Royal’s acting course.
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It also suits this studio venue which has a dark, slightly subterranean vibe and is arranged in this instance in ‘catwalk’ style with the audience along both sides. There’s mood-enhancing music, too, hinting at the fact that this lot don’t just act.
Although it’s an ensemble piece much of the focus is on Charlie whose sometimes befuddling journey is our journey too. At times I felt a bit like Alice after tumbling down the hole after that rabbit. Eh? What?
We meet Charlie getting ready to go to work, the worse for wear and clutching his mother’s ashes.
There’s a curious encounter on the Tube with a lugubrious lost property guy and work, when he finally gets there, is horrible. The people, the pressure… horrible!
Even after work, with workmates letting their hair down and dancing like crazy, everything’s awful, the partying crowd serving only to emphasise Charlie’s crushing solitude.
Oscar Ridley is magnetic in the role, delivering streams of emotional dialogue with absolute aplomb.
It’s a performance that’s tragic, comic, tragi-comic. You feel the character’s pain and exult in his moments of release and enlightenment.
Admirable support is provided by the rest of the cast, embodying the forces of blank, uncaring bureaucracy or the ‘friends’ whose assistance comes at a price.
All add to the unsettling world of the play, Jessica Hopper as the oddly knowing Sophie in her white coat, Sophie Mitchell as hungover Micke with her cache of fake documents and Emily Jones as a forbidding priest.
Francesca Lane doubles as performer (three roles to her name) and as assistant to director Alex Elliott, one of the experienced Project A teaching staff.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dull Project A show and I certainly keep tabs on those who go on to make their mark in the industry.
If some of these names don’t pop up in theatre programmes in the coming years, I’ll be very surprised. All are a credit to themselves and the staff led by Phil Hoffmann, listed here as producer.
To help you look out for them, here are those cast members not aforementioned: Dan Culyer, Simoni Dimitriadou, Courtney Nixon, Molly Harrison, Olivia Going, Amelie Cellini, Lily Blakeman, James Weaver, Ted Wordsworth, Cerys Anderson-Hall, Annabelle Rose, Hannah Guthrie and Laura Alison.
Good luck to all!
There’s one last performance to catch at 7.30pm on Saturday, July 13. Tickets from the Theatre Royal website.
