Solo (solo) at The Bristol Old Vic review
Posted on: 2014-11-14
Our rating:
Like the character, the play is clever, manipulative, brooding, and uncomfortable. But it's endlessly compelling, knocking your conscious and subconscious off-kilter, repeatedly knocking you off-guard.
Theatre West's production of Samuel E. Taylor's Solo (Solo) is a haunting, mesmeric slice of contemporary theatre, being performed at The Bristol Old Vic from 12-23 November 2014.
Performed by Philip Perry as Finn, this one-man play describes itself as being about ‘what happens when we look where we shouldn't, what it is to know the truth, and the distances we travel when we feel alone’.
But it's actually a lot more than that. It's complex, deep and very, very dark. In fact, it's tricky to sum it up, explain its labyrinthine expositions without flagging up a SPOILER alert.
It's about dysfunctional families, isolation and loneliness. It peers behind the lacquered veneer of seemingly normal, everyday lives and probes into a sinister familial heart of darkness. It oozes menace and simmering disquiet, Finn’s moods at first nascent, then bubbling and eventually exploding in a paroxysm of rage. It's about perversity and transgressiveness. It's about actions and consequence and fate.
Finn has a more-then-brotherly affection for his sister, a vehement loathing of her boyfriend, and an overwhelming desire for revenge against his father. The narrative explores the perplexing, blurred lines between right and wrong, hope and despair, love and hate. It also craftily, cunningly deals with time manipulation and the distortion of perceived truths and realities (a dictaphone - strategically replayed, rewound, recorded over - comes in handy for this).
There's a lot going on here.
Finn is the anti-hero, a man of the cusp of humanity and sanity, detaching himself from events but wanting so desperately to get close to them, understand them, feel them. He's a time bomb waiting to go off and his all-consuming fury is both propelling him forward yet holding him back. We feel his yearning and his agony, even though we're slightly disturbed by it. It all unfolds in a tense, riveting way.
Perry is sensational, captivating the audience through its hour-plus running time, personifying the character's complexities and longings, luring us into his simultaneously menacing, well-intentioned, confused mind like an emotional, psychological rollercoaster.
Like the character, the play is clever, manipulative, brooding, and uncomfortable. But it's endlessly compelling, knocking your conscious and subconscious off-kilter, repeatedly knocking you off-guard.
Solo (Solo) is absorbing, intimate theatre held together by Perry's darkly spellbinding performance, reeling you in until its final, quietly arresting conclusion.
4/5
Reviewed by Jamie Caddick for 365Bristol
Solo (solo) is at the Bristol Old Vic from 12th to 23rd November. Get your tickets online here or call the box office on 0117 987 7877.
Article by:
Born and raised in the suburbs of Swansea, Jimmy moved to Bristol back in 2004 to attend university. Passionate about live music, sport, science and nature, he can usually be found walking his cocker spaniel Baxter at any number of green spots around the city. Call James on 078 9999 3534 or email Editor@365Bristol.com.
