THEATRE REVIEW: Puzzle - (The Beast Will Rise) - online world premiere.

Tramp, in association with The Southwark Playhouse have been uploading a weekly world premiere monologue since the start of the UK lockdown, and each week one member of the cast that would / should have been performing in the Philip Ridley world premiere play at The Playhouse have instead been given their own mini world premiere to perform online. We had to wait a little longer this last week for the latest instalment, a 4-minute 'Puzzle' performed by Eleanor Fanyinka, and was it worth the wait? Of course it was!

Again we are located in the kind of weird world that Ridley can write so well... a world that seems somehow similar to our own, but a world where unknown danger, tragedy and fear lurk around every corner. A world that is perhaps one of our imminent future, or one imagined from our present and past; but it is always an uncomfortable and unnerving world. This state of isolation and fear - captured in all of the monologues so far - excellently mirrors our own, current situation. but is full credit to the peformers for being able to bring their worlds so clearly and realistically to the fore in such a short space of time and on such an unforgiving medium

In this monologue, Puzzle, it is a young lady whose nerves are shot to pieces. She has just paid a visit to the post office - a place where a long list of names is displayed; those killed by the bombings. She speaks of people who have taken long journeys to try and escape, she speaks of her 8 year old nephew whom she hopes to soon see again, but in the meantime has bought a puzzle for him. However, she is afraid to go back outside, and yet she will have to go back to the post office to send him the puzzle....

This monologue, perhaps more so than any of the others so far, makes us think of our own current coronavirus situation more lucidly. Fanyinka says that it is important that her nephew should think of her as he is putting the puzzle together; a clear need for us to think of each other and stay connected more than ever.

It's dark and bleak, and just a little "off the wall". Pure Ridley. And once again frightening brilliant.

Reviewer - Mattehw Dougall
on - 23/6/20