Reviews

Promises Promises

Based on the true story of a trainee
teacher in London, Promises Promises is a 90 minute monologue thriller
performed by Joanna Tope, who plays a ‘venerable’ Scottish teacher
faced with the arrival of a Somali girl in her Year 2 class. Despite
the epic length of the monologue, the show entertains from beginning
to end, completely succeeding in dragging its audience straight in to
the character’s world.

Margaret Anne Brodie (Tope) is the
formidable teacher most audience members can recognise from their own
school days. Her humorous outlook on fellow teachers and changes in
society provide a subtle critic on today’s teaching-methods. However
this is not the focus of the story, instead the writing continuously
causes the audience to question Brodie’s view, whilst revealing fragments
of her past in a way that keeps everyone’s attention. Tope’s performance
is outstanding, with every emotion conveyed totally believable. She
makes everyone believe that she is Margaret Brodie with her entire heavy
past behind her.

The direction (by Johnny McKnight) is admirable, as there
is only one person on stage an audience could easily get bored, but
Tope delivers her lines to the entire audience, never once neglecting
anyone. The high energy movement used makes the moments of total still
even more poignant and are completely appropriate to what the actor
is saying.

On the technical side, it is used in
the most effective way, giving the piece a much sharper edge compared
to monologues that use minimal tech or set. The side-lighting adds to
the suspense, the small changes reflecting Brodie’s
location or mood. Both the projection and music are perfectly timed
to contribute further to her world and revolving panels at the back
of the set emphasise how Brodie’s is telling her story.

This is an impressive piece of writing,
the beautiful descriptions of events do not slow the pace due to eternal
use of the present tense and Tope’s incredible identification with
her character. The only issue is with Brodie’s past, because the back-story
the writer apparently wanted to make clear is sometimes not obvious
to the audience. However this does not take anything away from the
piece.  The climax is, though logically met, completely unexpected,
which makes Promises Promises one of the most well-constructed shows
touring Scotland this Spring.

– Rebecca O’Sullivan