‘The Suicide’ in this contextualisation is set in a rough
council estate in London where we’re cultivated with Sam Dembe who is at
present unemployed and is despondent that he is reliant on his wife, Maya and
mother-in-law, Sarah for financial support whilst he is looking for a job. In
addition to this, Sam has to live in his mother-in-law’s flat which is a major
blow to his pride and due to the fact that his JSA has been sanctioned he
becomes exceedingly bad-tempered and plans to kill himself. As he records a
blatant tirade it develops into him becoming a YouTube marvel; as such many of
the residents in the block of flats and the local area think that this’ll be
the perfect opportunity to gain some notoriety for not only Sam, but for their
own personal gain. Over the course of the performance, Sam is confronted with
his randy neighbour, Cleo (Ayesha Antoine), aspiring young filmmaker, Gil
(Michael Karim), Patrick (Paul Kaye) a documentary maker and Councillor Brian
Dawes (Paul Aron), the high-reaching local politician who all think that they
could use this as a publically videoed event of Sam’s suicide to earn
themselves some extra publicity for themselves. As Sam’s popularity mounts and
with a suicide party being held at hipster, Erica’s (Lisa Jackson) café, this
is taking its toll on Sam and Maya’s marriage to the brink of utter destruction
as she is madly in love with Sam. Throughout the show, other members of the
community such as; Igor (Tom Robertson) becomes a highly successful recording
artist so all in all the majority of people have been benefiting from Sam’s
misery, on the other hand, social services worker/manager, Min (Pooky Quesnei)
is repulsed by this and tries to convince Sam not to go through with it. As the time approaches to Sam’s suicide and
when he appears to have gone through his self-immolation, the kids from the
council estate, Shanice (Chloe Hesar) and Demitri (Nathan Clarke) want their
claim to fame too and now Sam’s suicide
has not only become an internet sensation but a media storm too which is
covered by daytime television presenters. At Sam’s funeral, everyone appears
extremely emotion which Maya doesn’t really understand their emotions as they didn’t
know him all that well, apart from Haigi (Sule Rimi) and his son, Isaam (Adrian
Richards) and at the finale it is revealed that Sam chickened out on his
suicide and we learn that he had to take a breather and comprehend what his
life is and what is important to him and this is his wife, Maya and is also
disgusted by the locals who have been cashing in on his misfortune. El-Bushra
and Erdman’s narrative is commendable as the contemporary take on how vlogging
and the whole hashtag phenomenon has been able to frame how El-Bushra has
re-invited a well-known play, furthermore, the gut-busting dialogue works
wonders in soothing Sam’s trauma which is quite alarming anyway.
One found the performances by the company of, ‘The Suicide’
to be skilfully portrayed as the outlandish methods of people show us how appalling
people can be as someone is experiencing their own plight, plus, the movements
and vocals were very good as well. Javone Prince is excellent as central character,
Sam Dembe; precisely how we can see that because of his jobless status, it is
causing him to think badly of himself and as he is struggling to cope with his
life at it currently stands, the only resolution for his own mind is to kill himself,
then again, along the way with all these bizarre situations, he is slightly
regretting the over-hype. Rebecca Scroggs is super as Sam’s wife, Maya; generally
how you can see that because Sam is not actually thinking about how much it is upsetting
Maya, we can see that Maya is getting annoyed that she is madly in love with
her husband and she wants him to understand that even though his life isn’t
that good at the moment she will help him get his act together and become happy
again. Ashely McGuire is incredible as
Maya’s mother, Sarah; especially by how ballsy she is as she is not afraid to
go full frontal nude and I mean full frontal in front of hundreds of audiences
members who looked enormously shocked such as the young teenagers in front of
me who put their hands in front of their faces, also she is vastly funny too
and it comes across realistic.
Nadia Fall’s direction is wonderful here as she has been able to show how one man’s melancholy can instil a media storm because of some idiotic people who will use this as a way to get their fifteen minutes of fame, additionally, there’s a pleasing level of characterisations as they convey what society is and it’s not good by the use of technology and social media which soon spreads like wildfire. Ben Stones’ set and costume designs is astonishing as we are transported to the whole council estate that is crafted through awesome scenic construction and scenic art, likewise, the lighting design by Paule Constable and video projection design by Andrzej Goulding added an extra sparkle to an already grand design concept, I was so so awestruck by how lovely and stunning the design is. Overall, the experience of, ‘The Suicide’ was such an agreeable modernisation of a play that really suggested that people can be quite nauseating with regards to how people are when others are in mental turmoil.
No comments:
Post a Comment