Arlington
A rattling piece of theatre that brings into focus just how much connection a person needs to thrive vs. survive.
Walking into the Reginald Theatre, a crackling version of Wichita Lineman plays as you pass the boxed-up set. We have a control room stage left, complete with multiple flashing computer monitors, a wall of television screens, a messy desk and a microphone intercom radio. It's definitely a control panel for surveillance and we are immediately brought a foreboding sense. On the opposite side is a mid-century waiting room, complete with light wood grain panelled walls, a large window, cheap office blue carpet and a few vinyl chairs in a row, an old gas heater, a radio and a couple of plants. It looks like a waiting room…and on the top corner, a large digital display of glaring red numbers…
The show starts with strong feedback/grumbling and we hear what sounds like a radio talk show: the script is witty, you can't help but notice the cast use their natural dialects, however the show isn't set in any place at all. This world feels dystopian.
A woman (Isla) played superbly by Phaedra Nicolaidis is standing and staring out the window, and in the room next to her, a Young Man (Jack Angwin) watches her on the screens.
Production Images (c) Philip Erbacher
Immediately it feels very George Orwell's 1984, a world unfamiliar and uneasy, built on surveillance and tasks…later I'm reminded of Squid Games…it's all so intriguing! As an audience member you are drawn in from the beginning, wondering who are these people? How did they get there? What's the meaning behind it all? The play is structured in 4 vignettes or stories, and the audience are drawn into each character's boxed up world.
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Production Images (c) Philip Erbacher
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The text is fluid, curious, constantly moving and referencing rules. Nicolaidis plays Isla in a naive, playful and inquisitive way; she's constantly asking questions and is curious. We later find out why her childlike innocence is still with her: she's unaware of her age and her only person to talk to is the Young Man (who is clearly brand new to the job and has no idea what he's doing). Angwin plays him with good comic timing and a great sense of nervous energy, making the character endearing.
Isla is encouraged by the young man to tell stories and dream and he records them on a microphone. During these dream scapes we see nature projected on the pale wood panelled walls, a world far removed from this large dystopian village. Throughout their multiple short interactions, Isla described looking out of the window and seeing multiple skyscrapers similar to the one she's in, with rooms full of people just like her. She describes seeing people jumping out of those skyscrapers. Driven to take their own life from isolation, boredom, madness, cabin fever, this show really confronted the feelings a lot of us may have experienced during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
Production Images (c) Philip Erbacher
A particularly gripping scene was the movement section performed and choreographed by Emma Harrison. Harrison's choreography was a fever dream full of repetitive patterns, rigid shapes and writhing movements. This section was one of the most disturbing for me. The numbers on the set were a lot higher than Isla's scene which indicated this character had been there for a while, with no one to talk to and nothing to entertain them. It begged the question from the audience: who am I when I'm truly alone? How long would I last in similar circumstances? I noted 3 people leave the theatre at separate occasions throughout this sequence. Harrison's character ends the scene by climbing up onto the window sill and jumping out.
The audience are relieved to move into the next scene where Angwin's character interacts with the woman watching him under surveillance. This woman is The Supervisor played with gravity by Georgina Symes. Angwin's character is being tortured by The Supervisor- not allowed to sleep, he's also clearly been beat up featuring blood stains and bruises on his body- he has to participate in a series of tasks with a countdown: only if he completes these tasks is he allowed to sleep. Symes is relentless in her approach and makes a powerful statement which stayed with me for the rest of the show and I believe summarises this story so succinctly. The world they're living in has been assigned a new way of living and the people are divided into, "those keeping, and those being kept".
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Production Images (c) Philip Erbacher
I left Arlington reflecting on my own humanity, the feeling of sanity being a fragile state, and wondering what it would take to tip me over the edge in an isolated world. How much does connection and interaction with other humans keep us from walking that line between living, thriving…or just surviving.
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Arlington plays until 24th August at Seymour Centre.
