The Blind Date Project
Silo Theatre
4-29 November
Part of the excitement of a live performance, be it music or theatre or a circus with trapeze artists and lion tamers, is the risk that it could all go terribly wrong. Whether that’s from hitting a bum note or forgetting a line or falling from your trapeze and being eaten by a lion, there’s always risk but to varying degrees. The skill of performers in navigating that risk is part of what makes live performance rewarding. Silo Theatre’s Blind Date Project is evidence of how exciting a show can be when big risks are being taken.
The premise of the show is straight forward enough, a girl waits in a karaoke bar for her blind date to arrive. That blind date is a different person every night and the actress has no idea who it will be before they walk in. There is no script, there are no rehearsals, just excellent performers being sent the occasional direction via text.
On Tuesday night Jamie Bowen was Anna’s (Natalie Medlock) first date. His character, a man who was struggling with the surprise of discovering one day that he had a daughter and becoming a full-time solo father over night, was both endearing and angry. The dynamic was initially awkward but the characters clicked and conversation started flowing easily, things started getting deeper as more vodka was drunk and then all of a sudden it became really quite dark. Jamie’s character sort of unravelled before our eyes and it looked like it was headed for complete disaster, they managed to pull it back from the brink though and deciding they needed to sober up, headed off to Denny’s. The show could equally go in the complete opposite direction and become an awkward comedy, or the characters could fall head over heels in love at first sight. That’s really the fascinating thing about this show, and quite clever really because it definitely makes me want to go back a couple of times.
Celery Productions have done a truly excellent job of the set, The Basement has been transformed into a karaoke bar with red festoons and posters. The audience is seated at tables of 6 and there was a lot of discussion around ours about how we’d all be more than happy to just hang out at the bar for the evening.
I definitely recommend heading along, perhaps you could take a date?
So tell us about the endearing/angry bits in more detail and why they impressed you. We want to know about you, what makes you tick, how you see the world, how you feel about your life.
Right, now I take off my Primary School English teacher hat…
Tuesday’s play was always going to end in tragedy:
Woman on blind date
Karaoke Bar
Male with issues
Vodka
Red walls
Denny’s*
The poor fools had no chance. Any single element above could have ruined it, but six?
*I met a woman in Denny’s once. It worked out fine, but the food was touch’n’go for a while. Why risk it?
Comments are closed.