Stories of loneliness offer poignant prayer in pandemic
THIS is not a corona play, announces the Almeida website. Oh, but it is. The collaborative show by Rebecca Frecknall and Chris Bush makes no mention of virus or pandemic. But its themes of loneliness and of lives lived out of sight gain a glittering specificity because of the way they reflect the sufferings and struggles of the last nine months.
Performed by seven actors, enacting nine stories interspersed with songs
on a guitar, it’s part campfire folk theatre, part congregational gathering – and is very special indeed.
Admittedly the show feels quite
diffuse but so many of its individual stories land that it scarcely matters.
There’s Holby City star Elliot Levey’s waspish, grief-stricken widower, furiously baking banana bread alone – his bitterness amplified when, having gifted it to a neighbour, he spies it on their bird table.
Toheeb Jimoh (of Apple TV sitcom Ted Lasso) delivers an unforgettable monologue about a year in the life of a delivery driver; in another scene he and Naana Agyei-Ampadu argue over whether to attend a BLM march.
Meanwhile, a woman savagely dissects what it means to truly be alone – declaring ‘I am my own support bubble’. And as a clinically depressed son moves in with his senile father (Levey’s character again), it’s never clear who needs whom the most. A running satirical theme is Christmas itself, and how brilliantly retailers have reduced its message of peace and togetherness into an allconsuming marketing tool. This production – with its subtle themes of myth making and storytelling, of rebirth through the act of coming together – feels like a counter-offering of sorts. It’s both a prayer and a hand reaching out from the darkness of this horrible year. See it – and, if you can’t, there’s a live stream tomorrow.