Review: MONSTER, VAULT Festival

As Joe is asked to prepare for a play about domestic assault based on Shakespeare's toxic male characters, his own relationship start to change. The second offering by Joe Sellman-Leava and Worklight Theatre at VAULT Festival is a defining and masterful performance. Monster is a journey through noxious masculinity, the performative aspect of it, and the glorification of violence.

Sellman-Leava is once again directed by Yaz Al-Shaater in this unspoilt and very personal play. Through direct address he lays the ground rules of the show, two storylines will collide on stage, some of it is real and some of it isn't. What ensues is the exquisite presentation of a precise script. As his character struggles to find the man behind the beast his director Tim demands, he obsessively watches videos of the accounts of male aggression and abuse from the likes of Mike Tyson and Patrick Stewart.

Al-Shaater's meticulous and eloquent vision has him shape-shift from one figure to the other in an intense and extraordinary showcase of acting ability. While it's a harrowing and poignant piece, Sellman-Leava is unafraid to quickly alter tone and atmosphere with the insertion of innocuously mundane and romantic scenes that build up to the traumatic and moving climax. He manages to maintain a strong level of lyricism as he bounces between Tyson's toxic speech and Stewart's recounts of his abusive childhood, while Tim's daily hyper-masculine aggressions surface.

The direction takes over the visual explanations of the jumps as Joe's incidental thoughts appear to spiral into a world of brutality and his own beliefs and values become compromised. The combination of his internal battle and the outer pressure coming from those who surround him kick off a compelling exploration of nature and nurture, making Monster an ambitiously layered, sublime, and forthright piece of theatre.

To post a comment, you must register and login.