Post by Nicholas on Dec 24, 2019 13:28:34 GMT
Whilst it’s interesting to talk about the best and worst of the last ten years, what we then miss reminiscing are those teeny gems. There are often those little shows that sneak up on you, those that maybe aren’t perfect but work just to your tastes, sometimes those shows you forget about until years later they crop up randomly in a dream. For me, there are a surprisingly large number which, years down the line, I’ve realised left a much bigger impact than I realised. As well as celebrating the biggest and best, let’s also celebrate those little gems.
Mermaid is the one I most want to bang the drum for. Many reviews were unduly snide, which I attribute mostly to critics not seeing it as about and for teenagers. A beautiful – truly beautiful to watch – evocation of the Little Mermaid myth, its framing of a teenager writing this story, grappling with political ideologies and forming her first tentative political identity, gave this such a punch. Like many young creative teenagers, Blue at the centre was brimming with potential, with confusion, with passion, with fear, and with too many ideas for her head to contend with; the show’s committed, fierce feminist policies, royal satire, and ultimate messages both political (fight for what you believe in, even if it’s only you) and personal (be yourself) literalised this eagerness, passion and politicisation in a way that teenagers could easily understand, and crusty old me still found inspiring. I remember the beautiful tableaus of myths of the sea elegantly constructed from seemingly nothing, and Blue alone on stage with a tatty homemade flag finally fighting for her own political beliefs. I adored this, and since its critical reception was so wrong-headed, this five star show deserves much more.
If You Kiss Me Kiss Me is another one I personally felt a deep connection to, oddly enough. Most of its creatives call it a gig, so this might even be accidental. However, by framing these songs of love, pissing your life away, and fighting the power against a very domestic 80s world, there was an inescapable political edge – Thatcher lingered over everything, be that the dole, crappy housing, lost opportunities, or (as I read the end) the sick spectre of Cameron reviving Thatcher’s uncaring world. If there is ‘no such thing as society’, forming your own society, falling in love, and singing grim northern love songs is actually a political act.
Lela and Co seemed, at the time, pretty damn good, but I didn’t think more than mebbe four stars. Perhaps it was my lack of engagement with similar political movements that stopped me realising, then, how canny it was. Since then I’ve read a lot of letters, diaries, or anecdotes about innocent victims of war – a depressingly broad world of storytellers telling an unforgivably broad world of horrifying stories – and the way Lela and Co’s dark theatricality gave us nowhere to escape and literally nothing to see, and the way Katie West befriended us so charmingly, make those stories feel like something Lela and Co told me personally, made me actually feel. Since then I’ve thought of it, and been reminded of it, a lot. It was an experience, a very human experience.
And Maria Aberg’s As You Like It – although I’ve seen it mentioned elsewhere, so I’m glad it touched other people so much too. From its romantic, laid-back charm to its absolutely beauty to my being an embarrassing Laura Marling fanboy, it was basically tailor made for me. Love Laura Marling as I do, I think that’s actually her album I listen to most. Theatre being so communal, there are certain shows that I return to as ‘happy places’ (Nell Gwynn, Jamie Lloyd’s riotous She Stoops), and none more so than this glorious piece of musicality and loving and joy.
I don’t know if I’d call any of these best of the decade, love them as I do. I’ve also found it fascinating to find these stories re-emerging in my memory years after the fact, often after I didn’t realise their power. So, rather than only celebrate the best of the best, let’s celebrate some of those little shows that meant so much just to you!
