Review of Missfit Monday’s at The Troy Bar

In Hoxton St in Hackney, The Troy Bar has been the venue for a series of theatre, story telling and film since February 2009, under the moniker Missfit Mondays.

This is a joint venture by Missfit Productions and Touchwaves. The Troy Bar is hosting Missfit Mondays every Monday until the 25th May 2009. The events are a platform for new writers, directors and performers to showcase their talents in theatre, poetry, story telling and film.

I saw the events staged on the 23rd of March.

The first act of the evening was an adapted excerpt from Arabian Nights with the story telling performed by Leon Conrad with Sam Fathi providing the appropriate incidental music on the Tambur and Daf – ethnic instruments of Middle-Eastern origin.

This was an interesting piece with Leon Conrad sat centre stage, performing the storytelling with much passion – similar in style to how the stories would likely have been told around a campfire at night in the desert.

It was well executed and staged and Leon Conrad was very capable of holding the audience fully engaged with his delivery, different and fun to listen to.

Following this was a performance by Jonathan Brown – this was simply outstanding! From the outset this piece was compelling. Jonathan is a consummate actor and held the audience single-handedly in awe with his amazing multi-characterisations.

There is just him on stage with minimal props, a chair with his shirt, tie and jacket on it which he gradually dresses in as he delivers a powerful performance.

His act was the first few scenes of one of his own plays called Free Beer. It is the story behind the inner workings of the mind of Bernie, a deeply “working-class” publican, and just exactly how dysfunctional this character’s personality and psyche are.

Bernie speaks to us in an (impeccably acted), grossly “uneducated”, completely convincing, ‘Jack-the-lad’ London accent. Without going into the fine detail of Jonathan’s writing, the story is both extremely amusing and profoundly sad.

In Free Beer Jonathan dissects the real immorality of the alcohol industry and the manner in which it is driven by the ‘profit motive’ of the big brewery businesses.

He explores many aspects surrounding the pub trade through the character Bernie, and also peoples attitude towards alcohol addiction, with every nuance of this issue examined with finesse and intelligence.

The character is truly despicable in his ignorance and vulgarity – even down to his dispassionate disregard for his obviously ill or dying wife Margaret and his young emotionally deprived son Teddy, who leaves a really painful impression.

I can not praise this performance enough. From the very evident skill of Jonathan as an actor to the profundity and humour of his writing.

I was not surprised to read he was a 2007 nominee for the Brighton Fringe, rightly so. This work was extraordinary and compelling and his other work will undoubtedly be so.

To find out more about Jonathan Brown visit www.thefathermonologues.com. A huge talent. Highly recommended.

Next up was Wrapped Up, an excellent piece of writing by Ella Simpson. The story of the break down of a lesbian relationship and the inevitable dissection that follows a ‘love-in-crisis’ that culminates in a very unconventional suicide.

Performed by Jules Ingham (Judy), Rikke Thomsen (Spanner) and Annabel Pemberton (JJ) and Directed by Erica Miller.

Again, minimal props were used on stage – a chair, bubble-wrap and a desk.

JJ, the now estranged, progressively blind ex-partner of Judy was excellent. Stuck in the Antarctic, on a charity expedition and in a situation she is clearly unprepared for, was funny and engaging. The real sorrow becomes apparent as you realise JJ has gone there to commit suicide over the rejection from her former partner.

Judy, the glamorous, self-obsessed, neurotic, prima-donna “actress” and JJ’s former partner was believable and true to form. A good performance again. She convinced me she would put her “own needs” first, irrespective of the damage wrought on her lover, which would lead to JJ’s eventual demise.

The Private Investigator, Spanner, who represents the self-reflective “other” side of Judy’s psyche was interesting indeed.

Sat at “his” desk for most of the performance, slowly peeling an apple (a reverse symbol of the title) as “he” analyses and unwraps the ‘case’ of murder by rejection with the break up of their 23 year relationship, about which this play is centred. Good directorial attention to detail, it always helps.

I would like to see more of Ella Simpsons writing. An intelligent take on the dynamics involved in the gradual deterioration of love in all it’s painfulness.

The final performance of the evening was Finding the Geocache by Rachel Barnett.

A very funny play about the ‘price of memories’ as explored via the interaction between two very different but totally believable characters; Andrew, the ‘shallow’ banker and Miles, the geek. Played by Damian Sommerland and Martin Durrant respectively.

This performance made me – and everyone present laugh a good deal. Andrew and Miles are on a GPS ‘orienteering ramble’ using a sat-nav direction finder to get from one “cache” to another. A high tech paper-chase in effect.

The actors used the whole venue space for this performance which was an excellent idea, and, technical aspects aside – the interaction of the characters was spot-on, with their true nature’s fully explored.

Andrew, the banker, remarkably finds a childhood toy he made, a clay lizard, in the ‘cache’ box and is then torn between the morality of reclaiming his toy, his memories of childhood or parting with his £200 designer sunglasses.

The rules of GPS “Geocache” require a forfeit if you take something from the ‘cache’ box. This makes for a very funny performance as Andrew and Miles struggle with one another’s perspectives which are deeply at odds. A thoroughly enjoyable and interesting play.

In conclusion I would definitely recommend these Missfit/Touchwaves nights. They are very interesting and innovative.

If you enjoy clever and entertaining theatre performance, storytelling, poetry and film then this is a fun and inexpensive evening out in Hackney. Definitely go before the end of the run on 25th May.

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