Presented as part of Applecart Arts online Fringe theatre festival, Dazed New World, this 12 minute monologue was written by Applecart's Young Writers' competition winner, Julia Szajkowska, and titled, 'One Shot'.
The piece, performed by an incredibly youthful looking Warren Mendy, took the premise that much of who we are and how we live our lives is not our own choice. Where we are born and the social standing of our upbringing, even our names are not our own choices; and so he questions these choices and listening to the voices of others understands that he can change; anyone can change, if they want to hard enough. Rather than being a product or bi-product of family, society, ethnicity, nationality etc, he can influence his future and decide to make choices for himself which instigate change: it all depends on which door you choose.
Seated on a wooden crate-like stool in the centre of a bare and black stage with only a little haze to suffuse the atmosphere, it is a little static, but Mendy is a passionate actor and understands and sympathises with the text and character he is portraying. His enunciation and speed of delivery though need a little attention. Several words or short phrases were lost due to this, which did marr the overall presentation. If he were to have taken the speech just a tad slower and made sure every word was clearly marked, without losing any of the passion and power of the delivery, it would have been much punchier.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 14/10/20
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