Hot on the heels of their success with Kitty: Queen of The Wash House, the team from ArtsGroupie brought another one woman show, once again starring versatile leading lady Samantha Alton. 'Weave' opens with Alton as Liverpool girl Arabella on a night out in town. Upbeat music and flashing lights filled the smoky theatre space before the backlit shadow of Arabella bumps, grinds and twerks in time to the music. The combination of sound and light managed to create a nightclub atmosphere and the fun started from the opening moment. Arabella obviously had a good time before she staggered home, pizza box in hand, kicked off her stiletto heels and hilariously tried to undress before collapsing on the bed.
Alton uses her physicality and comic timing to perfection in portraying the morning after the night before. This is where the story unravels, through the use of text messages and calls from a mobile phone that is always within reach and dominates Arabella’s life, we learn who her real friends are and the pressure and manipulation of social media. The piece is a work in progress and achieved a great deal in this hour-long production. The writing is current and relevant with plenty of local and celebrity references to keep the laughs coming. Initially written by John Maguire the show has benefitted from input by the whole ArtsGroupie team. The humour is brought to life by Alton’s outstanding and believable performance of a far from naïve young woman who still manages to be tricked by her ‘friends’ into believing her boyfriend has dumped her after her night out. This is achieved through social media posts and hearsay and forced Arabella to question everything from her extensive wardrobe to her hair. The story touched on body shaming, Botox and self believe and could have gone very dark but managed to remain light-hearted even when Arabella’s Russian hairpiece tells its own harrowing tale (yes – spoiler alert - it talks).
The script is concise and for the most part works well with some hilarious lines and the occasional voice-over providing ‘Big Brother House’ style commentary. The single scene with the hairpiece is less effective and comes late in the show to deserve top billing and to name the piece although the show is accomplished for a first outing and can only get better and better. The story is very much from the female perspective and left some of the younger males in the audience a bit bewildered, so there’s certainly room for a second act should they wish to develop it. The final scene departs from the main format which I found was unnecessary as Arabella gives her all, then almost steps out of character as she summarises events in a podcast. It would be better for the audience to let their own thoughts settle and ‘leave ‘em laughing’.
The play is a showcase for Alton’s talent and she undoubtedly portrays the role with a complete understanding of her character. She captures the complexities of a young woman still living at home with her mum and manages to make her both worldly wise and vulnerable at the same time. I look forward to seeing both Samantha Alton and ArtsGroupie develop as they continue to produce new and exciting work.
Reviewer - Barbara Sherlock
on - 3/5/19
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