Last time, I saw a play by the Manchester Poet Mia Darlone, it was full of very adult based humour that made me blush more than a few times in total.
Last time, I saw a play by Mia Darlone, ‘Below the Belt’ was without doubt for me one of the funniest but also dirtiest plays that I have ever seen but which was well worth going to watch.
Last time, the pace was so frantic if you blinked for more than a few seconds, you may have missed a stupidly funny line.
This time however, with her second play (I believe) the pace is totally different and filled with silences and live music interludes which were clearly wrote for the play (which was advertised as a dramatic comedy but if I am honest more of a drama to me although chunks of the audience did chuckle at little bits in the play) which was totally different from Below the Belt.
The story of the play itself started off quite simple focusing around the relationship of two characters Dan played by Paul Brandreth, a busker on Middlesbrough and his girlfriend Genna played by Rebecca Andrews who is as different to him as almost possible. Without giving too much of the plot away in particular the excellent second half, the crux of the play originally seemed to be the decision Dan would have to make when he got a better offer from a friend to come and perform in Manchester and leave his girlfriend behind.
The first half of the play started off strong with a nice use of multi media in the theatre with conversations on facebook and on mobile phones that I know confused more than one or two people but which I loved. Doing my degree in theatre studies some years back, I always enjoy seeing multi media used in the theatre and can most memorably at the Royal Theatre seeing flying toilets in an Ibsen version. In this play however, the two separate stories of the couple slowed down the pace of the play after they split but slowly began to click together when Genna became pregnant which may or may not have being Dan’s after a one night stand after a major row.
Without giving too much more of the plot away which thankfully did not go down the Gavin and Stacey route, the play in the excellent second half contained a twist which I didn’t see coming and found particularly brave although maybe a bit rushed bit for the theatre and, but no doubt would work brilliantly in the TV or Film field with a slightly larger budget.
Special praise must go to the backing cast, of who Parisa Nikkhah- eshghi who played the light, almost bimboesque (nicked from a review by Gus Johnson as I liked the term) character Michelle which made a nice contrast to Genna’s darkness very, very effectively and Jennifer Edwards who played Sally who Dan met in Manchester and was clearly used as a alternative to Gena subtly enough to leave me thinking whether there was more that could be said with that role.
Being honest, the play itself to me did have one or two minor faults, in particular when it felt it was 15 – 20 minutes too long for the theatre and one or two bits of the multi media bits (Some of the shorter scenes in the night-club for example) would have worked better on TV, Film or Radio better than the theatre, I did enjoy the play overall and can certainly see this getting made as a film or TV special.
And thankfully with a ending like they had, nothing to do with Gavin and Stacey whatsoever
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