Up Down Boy
21/03/2011 - 26/03/2011
Capital E National Arts Festival
Production Details
Matty is off to college in an hour – and he’s left it to Mum to pack his suitcase. She won’t miss the slamming doors, the queue for the bathroom and the phone bills. Will his Mum cope without him? Will he cope with the challenges that lie ahead? And how will they fit that life-size model of Buffy the Vampire Slayer into the back of the car?
Myrtle Theatre Company received rave reviews for this touching play inspired by the extraordinary life story of a boy with Down syndrome and his mother’s humorous and idiosyncratic perspective on bringing him up.
Up Down Boy
Illot Theatre, Civic Square
Mon 21 – Fri 25 March, 10am, 11.30am and 1.15pm as available, call Capital E to confirm on 913 3740
Friday 25 March, 6.30pm and Saturday 26 March, 1pm
Bookings: Capital E 04 913 3740
Tickets: $16.50 each or $33.00 each for 3 shows
www.Capitale.org.nz
A quietly powerful performance
Review by John Smythe 21st Mar 2011
The title is a play on words relating to the central character’s Down Syndrome. Matty – winningly played by Nathan Bessell – is about to leave home for a college, which in British terms (the production comes from Bristol) means a residential vocational training facility. But he is not exactly helping his mum, Odette (Heather Williams, also credited as the director), who is trying to pack.
She believes they have to cut the apron strings so he can achieve greater independence, even though, given he is the last of her many children to leave home, she too is going to find it a wrench. His room full of soft toys, action man dolls, a talking Yoda and a box of CDs attests to the evolution of what has become his comfort zone: not to be easily left.
I’m in two minds about other aspects of Sue Shields’ script. Odette does go on; she barely stop talking … But I suppose that’s the point. Along with Matty we tune in and out and the magical moments are when he takes us into his world, enhanced by AV representations of it (created by Evil Genius). What he may experience more intensely is something that we can all identify with.
Because he is deaf too – and refuses to wear his hearing aid – Matty’s words are often hard to decipher but his body language and his movement-cum-dance (directed by Michelle Gaskell) are eloquent and totally compelling. Initially quiet at his appearance, it didn’t take long for a packed Ilott Theatre to warm to him, and the huge wave of applause that greeted his curtain call attested to the quiet power of his performance.
This outcome proves the play delivers on its core objectives, so grumbles about the meandering tracts of mumsy chat about family history, delivered with little variation in pace or tone – and during which the audience became visibly and audibly restless – may seem irrelevant. I am not sure, however, that a less wordy and more dynamic evocation of that aspect would have detracted from the transitions into Matty’s world view.
_______________________________
For more production details, click on the title above. Go to Home page to see other Reviews, recent Comments and Forum postings (under Chat Back), and News.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
Comments