Cycle of trauma explored in ambitious Red Shoes Theatre production
REVIEWER Siún Carden was impressed with the ‘skill and ambition’ of the local drama scene after watching Red Shoes Theatre’s You Made Me at Mareel last week.
The production weaves three stories, set decades apart, into a chain of interlocking secrets, struggles and missed opportunities to prevent suffering which compounds across generations.
With 10 actors playing a total of 26 characters, not to mention some characters appearing at multiple stages of their life, it is a credit to the production as a whole that the audience in Mareel were carried along with the twists and turns as interconnections between timelines emerged, and the overall resolution clicked into place.
The three main characters are initially encountered as: Frankie, a young soldier returning from WW2 to less than a hero’s welcome (Amber Johnston, whose expressive face brings impressive authenticity to the role); Babs, a schoolgirl set on a new life with a dubious ‘Romeo’ (Isobel Pagulayan, who combines the character’s defiance and vulnerability with aplomb); and Oliver Jones, a troubled workplace bully (Gary McAlister, whose rageful monologues show where all this inherited trauma has ended up).
The trajectory of each main character is shaped by forces such as misogyny, homophobia and abuse. While this could make the play a gruelling watch, and I can see why contact details for support services are provided, the fable-like qualities of the stories, dramatic emotional crises and stylised production give the play energy and intrigue.
Each of the three interwoven stories centres on one main character, surrounded by a constellation of others who are listed in the programme as ‘The Watchers’. Through this structure the play explores ‘bystander theory’, or the impact of ordinary people’s decisions whether and how to intervene when something damaging is happening. Some of the ‘Watchers’ drive the action, such as a police interviewer in 2019 (played by Kelly Nicol). Some ‘Watchers’, like a 1972 school secretary in urgent need of safeguarding training (played by Lesley Leslie), witness events in silence with equally momentous results. In the 1946 timeline, actor Kevin Briggs communicates a father’s complex response to family conflict without speaking a word, while Lynsey Randall shows the terrible struggle to keep up appearances in her voluble ‘mother’ role.
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The traumas suffered by main characters ripple out through the lives of the Watchers around them, whether through romantic relationships (like young Dorothy, played by Ryleigh Leask, or Joseph, played by Jordan McLaughlan) or otherwise (such as when Sam Renwick plays Linda as a convincingly bullied frenemy).
As the actors reassemble swiftly in different roles and timelines, it’s notable how well they work together to keep the audience immersed. This shows their growing experience as a company.
You Made Me is staged almost in the round, with actors not immediately involved in the drama sitting in view, reflecting the audience and embodying the ‘Watcher’ idea. Colour and sound are used to pull together the play’s different elements. Pops of bright red jump out of each scene, including through the ‘Red Shoes’ themselves (which seem more meaningful in some moments than others).
Between scenes, as the action jumps between decades, we hear a haunting original score by Trictoc. The set is worked just as hard as the actors, as small changes transform a tea room to a florist to a police station and so on. The production team (Esther Renwick, Barnum Nixon-Smith and Alfie Boyes) make it all work seamlessly.
Written and directed by Stephenie Georgia, the play suggests that while that, in Philip Larkin’s words, ‘man hands on misery to man’ (and woman), we can all spot moments when this process could have been interrupted.
It’s a thought-provoking and entertaining production which shows the skill and ambition of Shetland’s local drama scene. Red Shoes Theatre’s independent amateur theatre troupe is well worth watching.
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