STRIPTEASE / OUT AT SEA

After really enjoying Rhinoceros at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August, Karlie and I couldn't help getting tickets for another absurdist theatre piece - this time a double-bill of two plays directed by Matthew Lenton Striptease and Out At Sea at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow.

Being pretty new to the whole theatre-going thing we turned up an hour early and decided to go to the bar for a wee catch up and a glass (or two) of pinot before the doors opened to The Changing House - the more intimate stage at Tron Theatre.

Heading upstairs we entered a very small room with three lines of chairs lining the walls of the room, a square of floor in the centre covered in old leather and fabric briefcases acting as the stage. At this point we realised just how intimate a show it was going to be.

The show opened with a flash of light and a bang and when the lights came on there was Robbie Jack, who starred in Rhinoceros previously, on all fours looking around in distress. Slowly he stood up clutching his briefcase wondering aloud how he got here. He was shortly joined by his co-star who also flung himself into the room, stood, clutched his briefcase and wondered how he too had gotten here. 

What followed was a hilarious, absurd conversation between the two as to how they could possibly have both arrived in this room and how they were to escape. They squeezed between members of the audience and sat waiting for something to happen, a moment to flee, then came the ambiguous, flirtatious and anonymous hand who asked them without words to remove their shoes and belts.

More disagreement ensued and one character lost it, stealing Karlie's chair to stand on it - jacket turned inside out and trousers rolled up singing "like a fisherman". The hand returned and demanded jackets and trousers leaving the two men in their shirts, ties and boxers and handcuffed to each other.

Eventually they succumbed to the hand, taking it and leaving through the door - their distant screams audible sending the audience into hysterics, before they came running back into the room with jute sacks on their heads clinging to each other before spotting a second hand reaching in to the room from a second door, this time they left and didn't come back. 

We left the room at the intermission so they could change the set, and when we returned the stage had been drawn out with chalk denominating BOAT from SEA and HORIZON and naming audience members as HUNGRY PERSON or RUTHLESS PEOPLE (that would be us two). Three actors, two the same as before, now crouched, slumped over and shuffled aimlessly on the 'boat' as we took our seats.

The lights dimmed and so began another hilarious piece, this time of the three men lost at sea trying to decide which one of them should be eaten. Campaign speeches followed - one chap saying he had a family, another saying he didn't eat at all and really enjoyed the preparation of food, and the third saying he'd give the best bits of meat to the other diner. The vote was disqualified as there ended up being 4 slips of paper instead of 3, then two tried to guilt trip the third into volunteering claiming they were both orphans and that that was bad enough without being eaten. 

Then in came one character's post man 'swimming' with a telegram stating his mother died, thus making him an orphan too. Then the debate resorted to class, at which point the same actor who was the post man came swimming in again - this time as the accuser's butler throwing out the class argument too.

All photographs by Alex Brady

Eventually two managed to convince the third that he should volunteer, that he needed to fulfil this duty - and that's when Robbie found the tins of sausages and beans they thought they'd run out of at the beginning of the piece. To which the other 'diner' responded that they'd still have to eat the other because he was so happy with his decision to be eaten.

Definintely absurd, definitely hilarious, worth every penny of the £7.50 ticket! 

The theatre might just be fast-becoming my new favourite thing to do for an evening out!

I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for more absurdist theatre pieces in the future, and likewise I'll be keeping my eye on what's to come from the theatre company Vanishing Point as that's the second things I've seen from them which was really great and new to me!

Are there any plays or performances you've seen lately that you thought were really great?

-  Melissa   x