I will cut to the chase straight away with this review: if you are able to get to London in the coming weeks and are itching for some stimulating, highly original theatre, then get yourself to the Big House Theatre in Islington. ‘The Ballad of Corona V - The Remix’ investigates with thought-provoking fire in its belly, the many facets of what we have all gone through in the past year and a half, leaving an indelible impression on its audience members who are lucky to have been witness to the show.
The Big House has a multi-faceted uniqueness which, as far as I know, has not been replicated elsewhere. First and foremost it is a training and performing facility for young people who have been in the care system - offering a range of support alongside dynamic workshops and professional performance opportunities - all housed in a large, characterful multiple-roomed space AKA ‘The Big House’.
Superbly crafted and scripted by David Watson, and directed by the company’s CEO Maggie Norris, the audience are propelled on a journey through the House to experience what are effectively five immersive plays, using Norris’s favoured ‘promenade’ staging. The plays are stand-alone but equally interlinked exploring the many aspects of the collective and individual experiences of the Coronavirus: this ‘ballad’ being a mix of heightened naturalistic and at times surreal set-pieces that bring home exactly the surrealist or even apocalyptic nature of what we have all recently experienced in varying degrees.
Each ‘play’ deserves a review in its own right - but to encapsulate: the journey starts with a meeting of six characters who lost their lives in different historic tragedies, from the Grenfell fire to World War 1, greeting the arrival of an NHS nurse who, with the absence of PPE has tragically succumbed to Covid 19, with a Coronation celebration-style welcome. We are then confronted with ‘Corona’ himself: a gun-toting, deeply unstable character in cowboy get-up - reminiscent of a Coen brothers villain - brilliantly and disturbingly played by Taureen Steele. Next we watch a bizarre encounter between a drug dealer disguised as a postman and an upper-middle class advertising executive - not quite cutting the mustard with the rainbow images drawn with her daughter and ‘clap for carers’ as the only way she knows of doing her bit. Then there is a visit to St Thomas’s Hospital ICU where we are faced with a Covid-comatosed Boris (with a suitably bumblingly manic interpretation by Samuel Kyi), juxtaposed with a desperate young woman attempting to see her dying mother. And in the final scene we witness the harsh realities of living in a hostel during lockdown - trying to make fleeting connections with other human beings and dodging scrapes with the police. All of this is cleverly interspersed with the technology we have all been so heavily reliant upon: face-time and the dreaded ‘Zoom’ meetings opening up several of the scenes to enable greater character interaction through their (and our) only means of communication - quite literally.
With Maggie Norris’s objective to ‘enable care leavers and at risk young people to fulfil their potential’ - this production holds a very strong message about what this really can mean. Through not only her vision and driven commitment, but also her amazing skills of both nurturing and skillfully directing these young people, she has created a theatre that showcases experimental, relevant and stimulating work that aspires to (and pretty much achieves) an impressively professional standard. And with the brutal statistics attached to care-leavers’ life chances (ie: almost 40% in neither employment, education or training post 19) this drives home both the urgent need for greater support for this significant sector of our society; and notwithstanding, the extraordinary power of drama and theatre as one of the most effective ways to do this.
With absolutely all due respect to the many brilliant companies in London and beyond who are gallantly trying to get back to business, ‘The Ballad of Corona V - The Remix’ is as exciting and cutting-edge as anything you are likely to see this year.
Reviewer - Georgina Elliott
On - 8.6.21
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