AVALANCHE (Bloom Theatre)*****

 

By Cal

Link: https://bloomtheatre.co.uk/avalanche-1  £8 (including booking fee)

Available until: 7^th February 2021

Trigger warnings: Strong language, discussion of sexual assault.

Avalanche is written in the form of a monologue and you’ll probably feel a bit like you’ve been hit by an avalanche by the time it finishes. It is a really powerful piece. It contains some really difficult subjects, but it is well worth watching if you feel able to do that.

It tells the story of a boy who lives on a mountain. He is very focused on life on the mountain and on skiing. He is strongly encouraged by his dad and he’s been successful competitively, but he does feel his lifestyle makes him a bit isolated from other people. Even the other people who enjoy skiing. He doesn’t feel quite like he belongs.

It’s a feeling many people can relate to, or have related to at some point in their lives. The feeling of isolation is also one a lot of us have come to know, even if we haven’t experienced it pre-coronavirus. Everyone outside the household seems just that little bit further away; that little bit harder to talk to. It’s a new development for many of us and for some people, it’s incredibly challenging. But some people have always felt like that.

Being isolated isn’t, in itself, a bad thing. For many people, it’s a positive. They’re happier that way. It enables them to get on with what really matters to them, instead of hanging out with people just for the sake of it, because that’s what’s expected. The boy in this story is very aware of his isolation and it bothers him in some ways, at some times, but it seems as though he also sees the positives in it.

But in a lot of people’s view, isolation is a bad thing. They wouldn’t like it themselves (and many of them now know for a fact that they really don’t like it) so they have difficulty imagining that anyone else could gain any satisfaction from it. This can lead to further ostracisation – the isolated person is clearly so different from them, nobody wants to interact with them. Or it can lead to pressure to join in and be more like everyone else.

Sometimes that’s a good decision. It could introduce you to a world you’d never have known you loved if you hadn’t tried it. My adoptive parents didn’t force me to go to school when I was studying for my GCSEs, but they did ask me to try going in for my some of A levels as they thought I’d get a better quality education. I humoured them (you’ve got to do that sometimes, with parents) and ended up liking it so much, I decided I wanted to be a teacher. So in that situation, giving a new world a try turned out to be the best thing I could have done. That’s probably quite unusual – my adoptive parents hoped I’d find it a positive experience that built my confidence and made me feel more open to trying new experiences in a place where I had trouble believing I would be welcome. That’s a more common positive benefit from giving something new a try. But sometimes it does all go horribly wrong and the fear of that holds a lot of people back. Understandably.

That is part of what is examined in Avalanche. The choices we make in life and the way people view us as a result. The pressure to do something different. The possible consequences of making one choice rather than another.

Avalanche is written by Simon Fraser, with Jack Albert Cook. The script is compelling, emotional and it tells a really good story. It’s directed by Alistair Wilkinson and they’ve decided that, unlike many monologues, it will be performed in slightly different places, with the character in different positions. We don’t see the character move; they’re suddenly somewhere else. This has a slightly disorientating effect which suits the subject brilliantly. You don’t always know quite where you are or which way up you are. I think the character feels like that a lot.

Sonny Poon Tip gives a mesmerising performance. He tells the story clearly and well and easily draws us in. There are times when he seems like a slightly unusual but really likeable young man. There are other times when he seems precariously balanced between strength and fragility, somehow coping (as, sadly, so many men are expected to, whatever life throws at them), but with the feeling that the metaphorical avalanche could overwhelm him at any moment.

A brilliant piece of theatre.