By Cal
Link: https://space.org.uk/event/lydia
Available until: One more performance on 23rd May at 7.30pm
Growing up is an interesting process. We all have to do it at some stage. We’re usually a bit too anxious to get there and when we finally do, we often change our minds and want to be a kid again. We tend to assume grown-ups know everything and then we’re either disappointed with them when we find out they don’t, or we’re thrown into chaos when we hit eighteen and realise we still don’t know everything. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do, and yet we get very little choice in the matter.
The eponymous Lydia spends this play growing up. She starts off as a baby and then gets older and older till finally, she’s what most people would consider grown-up. She goes through lots of experiences, some good, some very bad. The way she experiences them depends partly on her age; how much she is judged to be able to understand.
We hear very little from Lydia herself. I don’t think she speaks, but we occasionally hear a non-verbal sound or we hear her moving around and using objects. There’s a narrator who describes what’s going on and what point in her life she’s reached now. Then there are all the people around her, telling her things; feeding into her perception of the world. Lydia is intellectually gifted and faces high expectations. She’s the type of person you’d expect to be happy; who you’d expect to speak out if she wasn’t happy. But is it really that simple?
It’s a really fascinating play and although a lot of people would say their childhood wasn’t like that and they actually had a lot to say for themselves, there are really re people like Lydia – and perhaps in some ways, we’re all Lydia. We do go through life doing what we’re told, whether it’s a direct request (or order) or an expectation or something in between. Even if we are confident generally, we don’t always question what happens. Sometimes it doesn’t occur to us to question it. Other times, we can feel that we don’t like the way things are, but we have no power to do anything other than accept it.
Lydia is an audio play and this really emphasises how little influence Lydia has on what happens. We mostly hear the voices around her, telling her what to do, feel or think. It’s very difficult to know how Lydia feels about this. That made me start wondering if Lydia is quiet because she was happy or because she doesn’t feel able to say anything. We can’t just assume that when Lydia makes a decision, she’s doing what she wants to do.
At times, Simina Pitur’s script has an almost hypnotic quality which creates a feeling of calm as we listen to the narrator’s voice, but every so often, something happens that seems slightly creepy and makes you start questioning whether that’s what Lydia wants. Who is Lydia? Are her needs being met? It’s impossible to know. There are a lot of characters, which can create difficulties in an audio play, but the script is really helpful in making it clear who is speaking.
Director Saulius Kovalskas creates a deep sense of unease without ever making it completely certain that something might be wrong – and this is very realistic. It is so easy to assume someone is okay because they’re the sort of person you’d expect to be okay – in Lydia’s case because she’s very intelligent, talented and well-educated. But this play demonstrates that you can’t really know.
James Viller speaks the Narrator’s words calmly and clearly, almost but not quite lulling us into a sense of security. As the Announcer, who takes over briefly to narrate Lydia’s life, Jessica Kinsey is falsely bright; the kind of person who thinks she knows and therefore doesn’t bother to listen. Laura Pujos is kind as Lydia’s mother, but her expectations are clear. Shaun Chambers is a loving but impatient Father. James Crouch is lovely as James, and Johny Gill is a gentle, kindly Father George.
A really intriguing, thought-provoking and worrying play.
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