MISFITS (Queens Theatre Hornchurch)***

By Emma

Link: https://www.queens-theatre.co.uk/whats-on/show/misfits £15.65 (you have to choose a seat when you book but it’s just for fun, you can only watch this play from home)

Available until: Livestreams at from Thursday 17^th-Sunday 22^nd November at 7.30, plus matinées on Thursday and Saturday

When you think of people who come from Essex you usually think of bad fake tans and relationship problems. But actually people from Essex aren’t all like that and fake tan isn’t just an Essex thing. I’m not from Essex and I’d be lying if I’d never had a bad fake tan. That’s kind of the reason why Misfits was written. People from Essex don’t have the best reputation and that’s not fair because I’m sure Essex has just as many individuals as everywhere else. You can’t judge a whole county based on some reality TV show that’s only going to attract certain types of people.

The original idea was that everyone who bought a ticket for Misfits could choose between going to the theatre in person or watching the livestream. It didn’t work out that way because the theatre had to close but it did mean the livestream was already in place so everyone could watch it.

The four characters in Misfits are all from Essex and they all have an Essexness that is part of them but they’re four different people with four different stories to tell, spanning 100 years. The four writers are Anne Odeke (who is also one of the actors), Kenny Emson, Sadie Hasler and Guleraana Mir. The monologues have good characters but I think the stories could have been a bit stronger. There’s one about a beauty pageant, one about a school reunion, one about a night out with the lads and one about being pregnant and being in a rock band.

There’s nothing wrong with these stories at all but the Essex stereotype is based around looking beautiful, partying, getting into bad relationships and pretending to be a celebrity. And if you think about it the four monologues are about that too. The four people are a lot more intelligent than the Essex stereotype and the stories are more complicated than how I described them but I think there are other stories that could have been told which are further away from the stereotype.

I did really like the 1908 story about Joanna, written by and starring Anne Odeke. Joanna is competing in a beauty pageant but it is much deeper than that because she wants to be the first black woman to compete in a beauty pageant. That’s quite a significant event so it actually isn’t as frivolous a story as it could have been, it was a really important moment in history and all part of the move towards equality.

All the actors are good. Gemma Salter, as the pregnant Daisy, is especially good at telling her story and holding the audience’s attention and making you feel like you see everything she sees. Thomas Coombes is very likeable as Richard/Tag, who is on his last ever night out as a real Essex boy and is experiencing challenging feelings. Mona Goodwin’s Fiza has moved back in with her parents and is worrying about a school reunion and that’s really relatable, there’s nothing wrong with living with your parents at any age but it’s not the sort of thing you’d want to announce at a reunion where everyone’s going to be talking about how wonderful their life is.

But there was one thing I noticed all the way through. The play is called Misfits and I’m not sure any of these characters are real misfits. They might feel like they don’t fit in and I’m not doubting that their lives are difficult but they all seem to have friends and a life and a place in the world. Some people don’t have that.