Green Door is still very much a 'work-in-progress' by writer / performer Ann Brown. It is her 'baby' to use common parlance. The piece has developed greatly from its first outing a couple of years ago as a short ten minute monologue, to its present form, a one hour one-woman play. She starts the play by standing on stage, smiling and greeting her audience as they enter, breaking down any possible barrier right from the start. A lovely personal touch.
The piece is a very personal and brave account of Brown herself. She has a story to tell, and through the medium of theatre, she is not only expressing her feelings and raising awareness, but she is also managing to exorcise her own demons little by little. Brown has been through a divorce and then, after finding love and romance for a second time, finds only that this leads to an abusive and controlling relationship in which she not only finds herself emotionally broken but physically assaulted too. She is married to a violent and habitual liar and rapist it seems. Even worse, there are children involved in this emotional nightmare. Brown has finally come out of it, alive and kicking, finding a release and freedom in public speaking and theatre, and so is wisely using this medium to tell as many who are willing to watch and listen that such anti-relationships are much more common than one might think. Brown read out the statistics at the end of the play this evening, and the numbers were shockingly high.
As a piece of theatre the style is very intimate and personal. Brown speaks directly to us, and then acts out little sections of the story each time returning to a 'Jackanory-style' narrative. This way, we have no need of other actors or indeed much set; a couple of chairs and a small table sufficed this evening. Her manner is direct but pleasant and warm, and her enthusiam for wanting this story to be told has to be admired. That's not to say there weren't a couple of things which didn't quite work as well as they should have this evening, there were. First, when Brown was at her most emotionally raw she almost whispered her lines, which sadly, on the back row were inaudible. Second, as much as I admired the creativity and ideas behind the lighting design, it didn't work. It was too busy and fussy for the most part, and we didn't really need all those changes... it is mostly a monologue, and so allowing the words and emotions to tell the story would have worked better. The blackout didn't work at all, sadly. The coloured disco ball was a nice touch though!
These things notwithstanding however, Brown's story is worth telling, and indeed the way in which she tells it, despite its sometimes obvious theatricality in order to emphasise a certain point, is engaging and nicely thought-through. Brown intends to develop this story even further and tour it (funding permitted) to community / educational institutions.
An engaging and passionate story-teller, with a resilient nature and a slightly off-beat sense of humour (both qualities helped her through this ordeal undoubtedly!) with a true story which needs to be told.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 7/2/20
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