Review: BEFORE I WAS A BEAR, Soho Theatre

Soho Theatre's Upstairs space claims to be "A space for emerging companies, young people and brave new writing." Before I was a Bear may have been brave in 2019. In 2022 it feels sterile.

A coming-of-age story, Before I was a Bear is a one-woman monologue following Cally whose mundane life working in a pub is shocked by a jolt of electricity in the form of a clandestine affair with her teenage crush Jonathan Bolt, an actor who starred her favourite TV series as a teenager.

Eleanor Tindall's writing is fluid, garnished with enough poetry to flesh out the narration with richness; the emotional ebbs and flows of teenager years are lovingly captured warts and all. Cally is portrayed by an excellent Jacoba Williams who artfully balances being lovable, weird, and mysterious. She is perfectly in control of the tempo of the piece which she deftly manipulates to add and unwind tension, no mean feat given that she is the sole performer.

Director Aneesha Srinivasan keeps the pace punchy and tight, peppering in pauses to where Cally seems to revert to her animalistic instincts as a bear crawling around on all fours or devouring a packet of crisps. It is comical with enough of an underlying mystery to it to keep it engaging.

When news breaks of the affair Cally wrestles with being portrayed as a nymphomaniac homewrecker in the media. Bolt, because of his masculinity, is absolved of all wrongdoing. It is no coincidence that his acting career is unharmed, and he goes on to become the next James Bond. She meanwhile morphs into the titular bear, either an absurdist nod to Ionesco with a feminist twist, but more likely a reference to the classical myth of Callisto.

But as strong as Williams' performance, Before I was a Bear already feels platitudinous. Written in 2019, in 2022 its ideas that form so much of its dramatic landscape, notions about the nihilistic void of millennial existence, reckless sex as an unsustainable means to filling that void, female companionship, and being on the wrong side of internet trolls, all feel overplayed.

Whilst no piece of theatre is ever totally 'new', the play's distinctly millennial moral compass points in predictable directions condemning and exonerating in a way that preaches to the choir rather than challenging it. It offers no new way of regarding these issues, no new lens to offer a new perspective.

Because the climax relies heavily on untangling these problems, the ending is left feeling psychologically swampy rather than being the cathartic release it wants to be. It wants to devastate its audience but it is unable to. Perhaps these issues were newer territory to explore on stage three years ago when it premiered. But a lot has changed over the last three years.

Before I was a Bear plays at Soho Theatre until 11 June

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