Review <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I must say that I was a little dubious about this play even before I entered the Duke of York theatre on a warm evening last Tuesday <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last time I watched a Simon Craven play the audience was expected to join the actors on the stage and watch a live recording of a football match <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was all <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The experience was quite unique <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But not all unique experiences are fun <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And sadly Nebraska in Deal fits the bill <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If anything it is a great deal more oblique than his previous play <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Again the audience is on the stage <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But some are sat in the auditorium seats<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Watching proceedings on a number of monitors <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For all those who have attended board meetings <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nebraska in Deal explores the boredom and tensions in great detail <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This large company is run by the autocratic Simon Craven whose word he likes to think is law <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as in real life it is not and for the first hour the previous years performance is discussed in detail <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is meant to be tedious and it is <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that is when the first surprise is revealed <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members of the audience are invited to stay overnight in a hotel in Norwich and watch a live stream of the annual board meeting the following day<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only qualification is that they must know a girl\/woman named Sarah Tell<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Needless to say apart from a few audience members who were up for an odd experience there were few takers <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although I was told that four people took up the challenge and spent a night in the Clarendon Hotel in Norwich <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The audience in the first hour is asked to sit on the stage facing the members of the board and vote for or against certain motions <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later they are gifted chairs <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the actors improvising all kinds of odd motions were either passed or kicked into touch <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These motions range from what colour ties the senior members of the board should wear to whether a substantial investment from China should be entertained <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The actress Sarah Tell who plays Simon Craven’s Senior PA Sarah Tell has the busiest time passing all kind of glossy reports to anybody who wants one <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I received one of these Annual Reports and they are very lifelike as if the company Nebraska in Deal is a real company and not a fictional one <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is although rather strange to say the least a unique idea which I have never come across in a theatre before <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then the play takes a rather troubling turn as all of a sudden the stage lights lights are dimmed and Sarah Tell (who took a toilet break) returns wearing just an old dressing gown and decrepit pyjamas <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These appear to have cartoons of the late Bruce Lee printed on them <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She flops on to a bed which was brought on to the stage in the half light and pours herself a glass of wine and then another and another and another<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether the actress is sozzled or not is open to question <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ms Tell then starts a monologue to match that of Molly Bloom in Ulysses <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If anything it is more explicit than Molly’s monologue and some of the detail cannot be easily discussed in a family newspaper<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The actress weeps openly and farts (optionally) and then argues with members of the audience and other actors using explicit language and insults <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is an extraordinary performance from this actress who was last seen as Miranda at The Globe<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The triggers of her grief are too many to count but her main beef is that Simon Craven has some peculiar sexual tastes and expects her to share his passions <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If she refuses then her senior post is in danger <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sarah has a very sick mother in a nursing home in Norwich and she breaks her explicit monologue to ring a fellow actor in the city and requests that they and a member of the audience visit her mother at their leisure<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sleight of hand caught at least this reviewer off guard as it is known that Sarah’s mother is indeed in a nursing home in Norwich <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After about forty minutes the monologue is silenced when a red light flashes next to the actress <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She rises from her scruffy bed and leaves the stage inviting a random member of the audience to take her place <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As this happens six identically dressed women arrive on the stage <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They stand in from of the board members and are asked their names <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sarah Tell Sarah Tell Sarah Tell Sarah Tell Sarah Tell Sarah Tell <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you get my drift <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They are being interviewed for Sarah Tell’s vacant position <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is deliberately tedious with bog standard questions and bog standard answers <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Candidate number three is then selected and sits in Sarah Tell’s vacant seat <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She takes notes and little else <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At about this time after over three hours of bum numbing tedium\/excitement (whatever your view) the play is halted and the board meeting is suspended as a vote of no confidence has been tabled against Simon Craven which will take place at three thirty the following day<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I will not spoil the surprise other than noting that a member of the audience is asked to accompany Craven to his home in Richmond<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When this play suspends itself all the actors and the members of the audience are wined and dined in the auditorium <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the exception of the lead actress who has totally vanished<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was sent out to Leicester Square tube station to see if I could see her <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you can guess I returned empty handed <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The playwright in his programme notes explains that both he and the theatre want to lose money on the production <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is the raison d’etre of the whole thing <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nebraska in Deal runs for the next three weeks on Mondays and Fridays only (for obvious reasons)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Craven’s play is challenging to say the least and at times is very uncomfortable as the audience is part of the play and some of the tears are real <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A colleague who I will not name wept openly during Sarah’s monologue and had to leave the stage<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her tears were real believe me<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are strong enough then I urge you to see Nebraska in Deal as it is unlike anything else in London at the moment<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is an amazing experience <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Review I must say that I was a little dubious about this play even before I entered the Duke of York theatre on a warm evening last Tuesday The last time I watched a Simon Craven play the audience was expected to join the actors on the stage and watch a live recording of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17246"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17255,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17246\/revisions\/17255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}