Review: INSIDE, Orange Tree Theatre Online

Over a year since the lights went out, the Orange Tree Theatre is now entering the realm of live streaming with a new concept: Inside/Outside. This showcase of six new plays is written by both emerging and established writers, who were asked to think about the mental and physical thresholds that we have all been forced to confront during this past year. Inspired by this, the results provide contrasting interpretations of this concept.

Beginning with Inside, Deborah Bruce's Guidesky and I follows a woman who is scammed online while clearing out her deceased mother's home. It's the middle of lockdown and her mind is in turmoil. Samantha Spiro plays Diana and is excellent at portraying her rising loneliness, isolation and suffocation. She is stiff with brittle, nervous energy and her growing fixation on the scammer will resonate with many who have felt intense anger at relatively small things during this time.

Bruce's script is a little clunky at points, but contains some poignant moments, such as when Diana talks of the relationship she has with the lady who works in her local supermarket. There is much to relate to in this snapshot of being inside the head of someone beset with a solitary life.

Having arrived from Singapore, Joel Tan was putting down roots in British theatre when the world shut down. His interesting two-hander When the Daffodils looks at a post-pandemic world, where the old are kept inside for the sake of the lives of the young.

Ishia Bennison plays Meg, whose ever-decreasing world is now only glimpsed through a window. Jessica Murrain is her carer, Samia. An energetic Bennison deftly portrays the deep yearning she has to escape, while Murrain shows sympathy whilst trying to temper the desires of the older woman. A little more character development would have been welcome, but Tan's script creates a bittersweet and thought-provoking story.

Joe White's first play Mayfly debuted at the Orange Tree Theatre and won Most Promising New Playwright at the OffWestEnd awards. The final and most successful play in this trilogy, Ursa Major tells a sharply written and darkly funny story of a brief encounter between Callisto, a woman who chooses to live without a home, and Jay, an obsessive and heartbroken young man.

Sasha Winslow is both suitably quirky and deeply wise as Callisto. The brief relationship she develops with Jay, played with touching vulnerability by Fisayo Akinade, is very convincing and displays great humanity.

White quickly and deftly develops a clear understanding of the background of each character and finds a deep intimacy in the conversation between two strangers. He manages to fit in a huge amount of detail while maintaining fluidity. The relationship feels tangible and their conversation is quietly heartbreaking.

Anna Himali Howard's direction makes the three separate plays seem linked, aided by Shankho Chaudhuri's gently evolving, yet simple set. There is a definite sense of enclosure in all three plays.

The Orange Tree's Artistic Director Paul Miller has plans to integrate live streaming when live audiences can return. The structure of the theatre space in the round suits this goal: for those who know this auditorium, live streaming feels especially close to being there.

The final three plays by Sonali Bhattacharyya, Zoe Cooper and Kalungi Ssebandeke explore the theme of Outside and will be streamed live 15 - 17 April. The Orange Tree is back.

Inside is live streaming from the Orange Tree Theatre until 27 March

Photo Credit: Ali Wright

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