Trollope - 53Two, Manchester

The audience were immediately transported back in time. A radio announcement was made by British Pathe, informing the audience the play contains some dirty words, offensive humour, and that mobile phones need to be switched off. The slip of paper on our seats reminded us of this as well, also explaining how much they appreciate the fact that for another 50p you could have watched Maxine Peake at The Royal Exchange Theatre. All this was an intriguing start to the evening.

So, how do I summarise the plot of Trollope? There was so much jam packed into 1 hour of theatre. 23 characters were played by 3 supremely talented actors: Ali Kahn, Simon Hallman, and Jennifer Banks. Here is my attempt...

Percy Trollope is born as a full sized adult and has an extraordinary memory. After a tragic childhood of been abandoned and bullied, he turns his life around when H.G Wells shows him his incredible wheelchair time machine. From the year 1895, Trollope and the audience travel across time, place, and history; meeting famous historical people along the way. It seems, Trollope is responsible for how history has shaped itself. Famous people we come across include: William Wordsworth, Sid Vicious, Julius Caesar, Nostradamus, and Hitler. The way they portrayed Hitler, although it could have been framed as mildly offensive, was cleverly hilarious.

As you can tell, this fast paced production had one of the most bizarre and random storylines I have ever seen in theatre. That's what made it so entertaining. It would be interesting to learn of their devising process, it literally felt like they randomly drew the names of historical figures from a hat and created the show from there. How ever they did it, despite the chaotic and sporadic journey, it came together to form a solid and laugh-out-loud piece of theatre. The eccentric and daft humour landed very well with the audience.

Now, the play is advertised as, "An inspirational story of love, hope, bravery, vision". It was all of these things, but at the same time this was a play that offered pure escapism and fun; it didn't take itself too seriously. Each of the 23 characters were unique. It was like each character was transformed into a painted caricature and that caricature was physically interpreted for the stage. Fantastic effort and commitment was demonstrated by all the actors. They had jocular facial expressions too.

I left the theatre with my pre-expectations turned upside down, reversed, and inverted. Trollope poked fun at history as the theatrical space took you on a crazy ride across time and beyond.

Reviewer - Sam Lowe
on - 2/7/18