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Latitude
2011
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News
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Latitude Festival 2011 Reviews (7)WastedBy Kate Tempest, directed by James Grieve "We're the ones who feel awkward in theatres" the cast of acclaimed performance poet Kate Tempest's first stage play announce as they take to the stage. They're going to rip through stage conventions, is the suggestion - it's all they can think to do. And sure enough this is a play that is put together more like a gig, with a storming intro, a quieter middle section, and an ending that tries to unify and punch home everything that's come before. The difficulty is that Tempest wants to do what she does in her poetry - blast out her observations on the city, on urban society, on the type of life that young people are forced to try and live in these times. The sort of character specificity that a play demands is not what she's used to; she doesn't want to tell highly individual stories, she wants to make wider points. So while the three performers, Alexander Cobb, Ashley George and Lizzy Watts, do very well with the poetic monologues as well as with the traditionally-written scenes, they can never really get to the heart of who their characters are and what makes their story a vital one. Ted, Danny and Charlotte are old friends, bound together by the death of another friend ten years ago. They're all now in their twenties and stalling: Charlotte unable to express her feelings for Danny; Danny an aspiring musician with a bunch of trendy East London arty friends who don't really know him; Ted stuck in a soul-destroying job and a comfortable co-habiting relationship which is making him feel like he and his girlfriend have become "like a functioning unit" more than anything else. We follow them over one weekend, while they face down the disappointments in their lives; first while they hang out on Hampstead Heath, and later during a warehouse rave in Peckham. The dialogue scenes have a nice authenticity to them but are somewhat underpowered: of course the point is that what these young people are going through is typical of their generation, but this typicality makes it hard to invest strongly in their plight. Whenever the actors break from the narrative to spout Tempest's lyrics, the play shoots into life. It's some rousing stuff. "It's easier these days to pass out than fall asleep peacefully," says Charlotte of their raving ways. "We stopped believing we can remake the city"; this is, you could say, the battle call that propels the play: a call to the young generation to take back the city, to take control of their own lives. I just wish that we had either had Tempest herself on stage riding the wave of her own words; or had a fully blown play which told a compelling, complex, character-driven story. The mixing of the two media prevents us from getting anything so satisfying. Corinne Salisbury
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