Telling Lives (24:7 Festival)

The retiring director of Prestwich Asylum and his successor share opinions on different ways of treating the inmates. The latter’s real-life stories are told by a series of interviews with the new director Dr Perceval (Martin Drew, whose clenched performance suggests that the director is close to joining the inmates).

Sue Womersley offers imaginative direction but little discretion. The wide range of techniques employed becomes a distraction from the power of the stories. Womersley gets excellent use out of the theatre in the round staging with the cast seated amongst the audience and holding the photograph of the actual person they are portraying. Some of the staging is obscure. Perceval‘s examination of a female patient is carried out with the characters hidden from view by a sheet across the whole stage which may be accurate is dramatically unsatisfying.

The use of music is not always successful. Christopher Cotton has composed original music which is suitably disorienting. However actual songs are used to less effect. As this isn’t a musical their inclusion feels whimsical and the effect of characters suddenly bursting into song is unintentionally amusing. Although the dance routines are occasionally atmospheric (particularly the nightmarish sequence of a patient escaping) their inclusion adds to the disjointed feel of the play.

Telling lives is a powerful idea but its realisation lacks focus and the imagination of the show needs to be matched with greater control.

– Dave Cunningham