Changes Rota One is slightly overshadowed by Chickenshed’s politically Orwellian decision to erase from the planned schedule of Changes Rota Two Gemilla Shamrock’s gentle Palestinian play Conversation with My Father, in a surreal echo of the continuing Israeli elimination of living Palestinians from Gaza. However, given most of the UK wants a ceasefire in Gaza, it wouldn’t be a surprise if shades of the issue don’t turn up in other plays in a manner that doesn’t catch the eye of the censor.
This feels the case with Sara Chernaik’s very moving monologue With Love & Anger, which opens with an unidentified woman performed in a mood of calm, reflective emotion by Sienna Da Silva-Simpson.
She recalls her father’s advice to be guided by a concern for peace and justice even if that means breaking with your family, your friends and your country. He inspired her with accounts of the civil rights movement, the words of Martin Luther King and the marches for equality. She also experienced the solidarity of marching “together for peace, for a better world”, arguing that “with love and anger you can change the world.”
Among those she met in moments of struggle on picket lines or while lying down on the roads was the person she fell in love with. She also made friends with others she could after an event socialise with in “a common language”. They would also share her sense of hope and excitement at what Nelson Mandela represented in the fight against apartheid. There is sadness tinged with anger as she reflects on the current moment where children and aid workers are being killed and mutilated by conflict. Inevitably, we think of those daily reports of the Israeli attacks on Gaza.
There is an edge of sadness to a number of the pieces in Rota One. Running On Empty by Daren Norris takes us to a lone runner (Cole Deller) exercising before he goes for a run. As he talks about his life, we realise that the activity is a form of release from the regret and grief he is suffering over “the loss of my poor kid sister."
The coming-of-age story Butterfly by Morgyn Turay expresses the uncertainties of a young person played by Megan Ravetto. With some anxiety, she talks about the way she feels about herself, making comparisons to the stages of change in the butterfly. She speculates, "maybe I’ll be coming out of my cocoon sooner than I thought.”
Initially, the memory play To the Moon and Back by Sally Reeve seems one of fond pleasure. The remarkable actor Sarah Driver, whom you might imagine easily playing Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, is the unnamed American Southern woman who recalls meeting the man who was to become her husband back in the middle of the twentieth century. They had danced together all night.
It was a time when President Kennedy was promising America would travel to the moon, and her husband, keen to be an astronaut, was chosen to be one of the early travellers. Regarding it as dangerous, she didn't want him to go. Unfortunately, he did, and in a tone of regret, she admits, “something changed him up there.”
Many of the short plays from Rota One are written by women, and, certainly, a number demonstrate a fine empathy with the woman’s point of view. This is nowhere more clearly illustrated than the conversations of the women waiting for a bus in Ronita Dutta’s How To Be Invisible.
A young woman Sarah (Lyla Reynolds) sits beside Lena (Sally Reeves) at the bus stop. She may not need the bus but she mentions that it might shake off the man who has been following her. Soon, two other women join the queue. Emily (Sarah Jones) arrives carrying a baby. She is so tired of childcare that she can't recall the last time she got a good night’s sleep. Amira (Isabella Wise) says sadly that not having a child or partner, she “gets a full night’s sleep.”
At one point, men in some passing car express their noisy “appreciation” of the young woman’s appearance. Horrible though that incident is, it sparks a discussion of how they feel about the changing appreciation of their bodies. One of them points out it is so different for men. They “don’t stop being sexy.” Instead, as they get older, they get treated “like fine wine.”
The conversations are sensitive and realistic, touching on issues from periods to menopause. It is a hopeful piece in which the women feel things are changing. This thoughtful play is helping to make that change.
A small illustration of the distance we still need to travel in gender politics is found in Helena O’Connell’s play Boob Job, in which Olivia (Ferah Ibrahim) arrives to work late having been distracted by home circumstances including her fear that her partner is seeing someone else. Her solution is to have a “boob job” that she thinks might regain his attention.
The idea that a woman has to reshape her body in an operation that may have its dangers simply to please a man doesn’t seem to surprise or concern her workmates, Jack (Shiloh Maersk) and Ella (Tia Merrifield). Why should it? That’s normality in our world.
A couple of the pieces in Rota One seem to take a trip to the world of American B Movies.
In The Cutting Room Floor by Sarah Driver and Paul Harris, a mysterious woman journalist Lally Sycamore (Louise Connolly) visits the home of the composer of music for thrillers Hieronymus Fontaine (Demar Lambert) in the isolated mountains of Wales. Although we initially think Fontaine is the sinister eccentric, we soon begin to suspect the motives of the disturbing Sycamore.
The high point of Asher Reuben’s The Jungle about an authoritarian cult leader (Alex Brennan) is the fantastic synchronized dancing of the five victims of his domination.
One satiric piece that would strike a chord with a lot of people is Julie Dogliani’s A Rescue, which puts the notoriously cruel former Home Secretary Suella Braverman in a boat in the Channel where she panics at the danger before being saved by the refugee Samir who climbs aboard after his boat capsized. Being a magical fairy tale, it ends with Suella saying to Samir, “together we will change things.” If only that was true, It might even lose her the title of Cruella.
Some very good small changes have come to the situation comedy Order Confirmed, which is also showing in Rota Two. The advantage of theatre over film is the opportunity it offers to tweak the delivery of lines, the expression of the characters and other aspects of the script. It certainly pays off with this performance, which is a favourite of the audience.
However, my favourite of this event is Sara Chernaik’s With Love & Anger, which, when Chickenshed overcomes its shyness about Palestinians, could be paired in a special event with Gemilla Shamrock’s Conversation with My Father.