Attempts on her Life, Sola Adeyemi version – Photo © Eleanor Lewis

The content warning for a play is usually unremarkable. This one got a round of applause, both times.

Both? UEA Drama Students are never less than bold, and their current offering is an audacious presentation of two completely separate and distinct productions of the same script. And, what a script it is. Martin Crimp wrote this fascinating work in 1997 for an initial production at the Royal Court Theatre. If ever you have wondered what on earth the phrase ‘post modernism’ means, go and see this and you may start to understand.

It is a remarkable script that offers no defined characters, no clear narrative, no clue about context, set, costume or stage direction. Just a script of words for the director to enliven however they wish. I can imagine that a potential director would be attracted to this freedom, then quite likely seized with terror upon being asked to deliver a watchable performance from the text.

Unlike many commercial or even amateur theatrical producers the UEA students are not short of bodies to put on stage, indeed their numerous skilled population has almost created a new genre of complex multi voice performances. So we have two separate productions, with different directors and cast and at least 45 performers between the two with more backstage. In this context Crimp’s most notable work is the perfect opportunity for this fascinating and highly successful experiment in theatre.

The character at the core is called Anne. Or Anya. Or Anouska, Anny, Annie. We find out a lot about her, but the unavoidable truth throughout the play is that she is dead and never appears. Or does she? But seventeen (count ‘em) separate scenarios look in great detail about just why she might no longer be with us. She may be an artist, a terrorist, a porn star or even a car. She is a daughter, a lover, a mother and more. Seventeen attempts on her life.

The juxtaposition of the two performances on adjacent nights invites a comparison of the two approaches taken by directors Sola Adeyemi and James Robert Carson, but I feel I must resist such comparison in the same way that I would never answer a demand to name my favourite child. The two are distinctly different, but share an exuberant delivery, a lively use of music and movement and dance, and a terrifically engaging delivery of this startling script. Each have moments that charm their way into your memory: in Sola’s version the cello solo and the simultaneous translation of the car commercial, in James’s the girl who jumps on a box with a microphone to deliver cheery gladness and the razor sharp timing of the overlapping dialogues. These and many more moments caught my eye and ear, but you really must go and see both performances to find what works for you, but there will be a lot. These students are very good and we will undoubtedly see them again in years to come as they build on the firm skills base that the UEA course gives them.

Costume and props vary between the two productions but both share a novel and colourful approach to face make up which helps us to find unexpected commonalities between characters. James’s version also makes good use of startling illuminated masks. Both casts make the most of this powerful script, which addresses issues that are probably more topical now than when first played in 1997. Gender issues, the treatment and the strength of women, terrorism, abuse, family values, life, death and legacy all get a good going over here.

While the stage is busy throughout both versions the directors have given every performer opportunities to engage with us, build and deliver distinct and nuanced characters and to show off the breathtakingly wide range of the casts’s skills as actors, musicians, dancers and physical performers. The show is concentrated enough to be delivered as a single act, although one version splits the script into two with a brief interval. At the risk of a numb bum I think I prefer the all in one treatment.

While this play provokes many, many questions each show is a complete and very enjoyable entertainment with humour, spectacle, pathos and humanity in a surreal context. Each version stands alone as a competent and complete drama, but you cannot see just one knowing that the other awaits you.

Oh, that content warning. It listed the many aspects of bad human behaviour and experience which all seem to contribute to this drama, along with some startlingly frank language. But the warning deserves its own applause, as it sets the scene perfectly, saying to the audience ‘buckle up, you are in for a great ride!’

 

© Julian Swainson, Norwich Eye, 7 December 2022

LISTINGS INFO:
Attempts On Her Life
Two very different versions of Martin Crimp’s tour de force
UEA Drama Studio, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ

Attempts on Her Life directed by Sola Adeyemi
6th, 10th December: 7:30pm
7th, 11th December: 2:30pm
Run time: 1 hour 30 minutes with no interval

Attempts on Her Life directed by James Robert Carson
7th, 8th, 9th December: 7:30pm
10th December: 2:30pm
Run time: 1 hour 30 minutes with no interval

All Tickets £10 / £7 Concessions from UEA Drama Studio | University of East Anglia Online Store