#EdFringe –The Room – Review
★★1/2
One of the hardest shows to watch I have ever experienced, this one woman show, a completely sung through musical touches on some dark and difficult themes to deal with, including rape, abuse and family violence.
An well performed song cycle on an extremely difficult subject matter, The Room is a show to surely make you think, but also discuss why on earth someone would write a musical about this.
A girl, alone in a room. Why is she here? What is her story?
Turns out her story is hugely traumatic (and possibly needs to advertised a little clearer as extremely triggering, rather than ‘shock and delight’ – there’s no delight in this show). Her story is unraveled through song (in a completely sung through show with little pause or breathing room) as a case of domestic violence of the worst proportions – raped and abused by her father, who may have then murdered her mother, she swings between realizing her trauma and lamenting her loneliness, waiting for Daddy to arrive to see her.
While deeply uncomfortable, the storyline is also a little underdeveloped – where is she? Is the dad in jail (they mention he can only visit once a week)? Is she in protective custody, or just sitting at home alone waiting for her dad to come home? How old is she? She appears to be suffering some PTSD similar mental illness following her traumatic experiences, but also reverts to a childlike innocence and naivety to hide from it, which is both jarring and psychologically interesting. The storyline and timeline are a little jumbled (from the unraveling style structure)
This performance by Louise Thomas as the Girl is outstanding. A captivating performance of youth, anger, trauma and loneliness, she does not falter as she swings between these emotions and commands the stage alone.
Alexander Abbott’s music is lovely, and well played but very light and delicate compared to the heavy subject matter.
This was a hard show – on one hand, the vocals and music are lovely, but the story line is not, and smashing them together has made an interesting experiment, but it is hard to see where the show goes from here.
The Room played at PQA Venues until 26 August. More Info.
