Theatre / Embers
Review: Embers! A New Scratch Night, Alma Tavern & Theatre – ‘A cornucopia of acting delights’
On a bone-shakingly cold evening, theatre goers slowly filling the intimate performance space at Alma Tavern & Theatre are met by a young lady with a beaming smile, bearing a tray of scrumptious looking homemade vegan banana bread.
Still wearing an apron, it seems as if she has only recently baked it, and is giving us a fresh slice of quintessential West Country hospitality.
But this is merely a prop for the opening segment of Embers, performed by the mercurial storyteller and actor Polly Tisdall: it’s like the tale of Baba Yaga with an Angela Carter-esque contemporary twist.
is needed now More than ever
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Conceived by Over the Coals Productions, led by Ben Nash – a graduate in direction from the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Embers is a brand new scratch night, intended to show off early stage work and then engage the audience in discussion around what they have just seen.
Five individual 10-minute segments are each followed by a Q&A session with the performer, facilitated by Nash. Each tableau explores a specific theme: from confronting fears to ingrained misogyny in the workplace; gender identity to living with a disability; the pressure that societal expectations can place on an individual.
Tisdall’s opening tableau is an ode to the power of rightful indignation and pent-up anger. She manages to weave a tapestry of authentic personal experience as a young actor with the familiar tale of Baba Yaga, with an artful and visceral sincerity.
Polly Tisdall
Recounting how a predatory middle-aged actor had behaved inappropriately to her on and off set, yet no one raised any concern, she calls out the harm in behaviour masking itself as merely the effervescent charm of the 70s.
She spits out the words “I baked them a cake” with rage-filled intonation as clear and distinct as a freshly minted coin.
The second section of the evening features Maia Ayling performing Shush, a monologue written by Ryan Murphy, a writer-performer with degenerative hearing loss. Exploring the limitations of self-expression and the social exclusion that may be suffered as a result of deafness or hearing loss, the piece is shot through with a playful comedic surrealism, heralded by the introduction of Count Dracula.
Maia Ayling
Before the interval, the wonderfully versatile Guenevere Lambert uses Anti-Queero to delve into themes of social awkwardness, invisible disability, gender identity and queerness.
The success of this slick segment is testament not only to Lambert’s clear talent as a performer, but also as an editor, featuring a painstakingly layered background track, which lends a cinematic feel to the piece.
The action moves at a rapid pace, and the juxtapositions are met with approving laughter from the audience: from the commuting passenger audibly chomping a chicken sandwich, to the exasperated protagonist, angered into performing an outlandish impersonation of a chicken on the train.
Guenevere Lambert
After the break we are swept away to a breezy seaside graced with beautiful women, Cheesy Chips and Mayo. The actor Mark Gillham channels his inner child, brimming with wonderment and boneheaded optimism.
It’s nevertheless a time of life in which performative ‘manliness’, the need for constant validation from adults and the pitfalls of societal expectations are dissected with a razor-blade precision.
Gillham bursts into romantic arias like an Italian tenor on steroids and expresses his romantic ardour. He sees his exploits in romantic escapades as “pussy on tap”. The piece explores how this crude boorishness could stem from some innocuous encounters with adult male relations of your life.
Mark Gillham
The book-ending segment for the evening features the magisterial Rozelle Gemma, with her cathartic and poignant semi-autobiographical No Woman is an Island.
The piece opens with a phone call from an unidentified number, informing her that she has been chosen from among thousands of applicants to go on The Island with Bear Grylls. It is indeed a ‘pinch me’ moment of joy and incredulity.
Reiterating the need to climb your own mountain, and reclaim your self-worth, Gemma poses the question, “What would you do if you weren’t scared?”, giving us an unapologetically raw and jarringly wholesome snapshot into one’s innermost being.
Rozelle Gemma
This is not the last we’ll see of this scratch night concept, and Ben Nash is to be commended for assembling such a cornucopia of Bristol-based theatre delights.
Talking to him during the interval, he reflected that what matters most for him is to provide a platform for young artists. Let’s hope he can help keep fuelling those embers until they turn into a glistening flame.
Embers! A New Scratch Night is at the Alma Tavern & Theatre from January 18-20 at 8pm. Tickets are available from www.tickettailor.com.
Main photo: Ben Nash
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