'Traps' is an experimental play from the giant of modern theatre, Caryl Churchill, one that is rarely staged, making this new production at the La Mama HQ a treat for all theatre-lovers.
Abstract and immersive, Traps works like a living and breathing painting, one that blends colours and objects into a kaleidoscope of human emotion that leaves an audience ruminative and craving for answers.
With direction by Laurence Strangio, this late 70s script from Churchill is brought to life by not only its attention to detail, but the wonderful usage of the theatre space. Truly utilising the La Mama theatre to its fullest potential, this production invites an audience of no more than 25 into this living world, with each viewer required to take seats set up against opposing walls.
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All the while, actors Meg Spencer, playing Syl, and Scott Middleton, playing Jack, inhabit a living room that the audience is invited to voyeuristically intrude on. Syl carries a baby as Jack stares from his place in an armchair, granting the audience an insight into their lives before actor Leigh Scully, as Albert, kicks the action into gear, entering from the main door of the theatre drenched after the rain.
The room itself is made to feel homely, but unsettlingly so at that. An ironing board is easily set up and used for its household purpose during the show, while the actors comfortably navigate playing cards on the central table, picking peas from their pods and putting them in a bowl. Mundanity is heightened deeply, as the audience is invited to view this microcosm of society in ways they see fit, altering focus between an ongoing attempt to complete a jigsaw puzzle and the critical dialogue that shifts between the deepest recesses of human emotion to the blandest occurrences which take on global significance
Great lengths are taken to further the immersion for the audience, an element which is Traps’ most shining achievement. The lighting design by Clare Springett was a beautifully subtle effort that illustrated the gaps in the play, from the iciness of the room to the falling sun that sets through the windows of the theatre: you almost forget that the sun has already gone down.
The shifting landscape of Traps is served truly well by the stellar ensemble cast. Rounding it out are Gabriel Partington, Cait Spiker and Dom Westcott, who, including those actors who dominate the play from its beginning, all shine in their respective roles, bringing an earnestness to the at times obtuse dialogue. All endlessly watchable, there was not a single moment, even in the play’s more drawn-out segments, that felt abstract for abstract’s sake. Everything and nothing felt constantly important.
Traps may be a little-known Caryl Churchill play, but this production is one of the crowning achievements to be put out by La Mama this year. With wonderfully tight direction and a sense of immersion that truly envelopes the audience, Traps is a theatrical experience unlike any other.
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