Review of "Island" at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London

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Theatre Review

On Wednesday the 21st of May I went to see “Island” at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London. It was a play performed without dialogue and used no facial expression because all the characters wore masks. This play concerns an old woman’s memories of her childhood and all the precious things that symbolised special moments in her life. The play represents the small things in life that actually mean a lot to people. As the play progresses the audience start to feel a sorry for the woman whom the play is about because there are so many deaths of people who mean a lot to her. The old woman feels lonely and lost during the play and feels like she needs to do something with her life. This leads her to her continuous thoughts about her life that has passed her by so quickly. Although she is not famous and hasn’t done anything particularly magnificent in her life, many people in the audience can relate to how she feels because it is a play about the simple life of a simple woman.

This space used in the play was very small. The set was plain and the costume was simple. The same set was used for many different scenes. One thing that worked really well with the set was the “keep left” sign that was used as a road sign when the scene was meant to be outside. When the play was inside the sign was turned around and used as a shelf. The set consisted of a wall a workmen’s hut that was also used as many other things like a Punch and Judy performance, a beach hut and a missing persons office. There was also a suitcase that the old woman used as a seat because there were no other seats on stage. This set was very plain but cleverly used and worked very well to show all that was meant to be shown.

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This performance consisted of absolutely no facial expressions whatsoever. This meant that the actors had to make the most of their body movements and they did this well by making very precise movements with their heads. For example, they were either looking at the audience, at the floor or at the other character, they never looked somewhere in between otherwise the audience wouldn’t understand what they were supposed to be doing. They used particular movements to show their emotions. When they were happy they would dance, when they were angry they would use offensive hand gestures and when they ...

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