MONOLOGUE MONDAY PART 1 (Thornhill Theatre Space)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8fJX4VI7U0

Available until: Unknown

Thornhill Theatre Space’s second virtual fringe festival, #TTSFringe2, opened on 2^nd August with three brilliant and thought-provoking monologues. The festival will run throughout August with new work uploaded most days and we have very kindly been asked to be a Digital Sponsor, supporting the festival with reviews of and tweets about as much of their work as possible.

To find out what will happen as part of the Festival in the future (though some videos are probably already available), check out the Kick-Off Event. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIoaVrxuKlc

Monologue Monday Part 1 gives the Festival a very strong start. After eighteen months of monologues, there are still so many new stories to be told about new characters and the three monologues featured here are great and varied examples of the way a monologue can be used and the diverse range of subjects.

Son tells the story of a man who is forced to take care of his mother as she slowly deteriorates. Writer and director Renee A. Nixon has written a very honest monologue which is very movingly performed by Juan Isler. I love the way the character has been given so much humanity. So many people will be happy to tell you the correct thing to do in these circumstances, but maybe it’s what you feel that really matters and this is brought across really strongly in the writing and the acting.

I’ve seen a lot of plays, but Negative Is, Negative Does is the first to mention the words ‘aardvark’s tonsils’ in almost the opening sentence. That’s one way to grab an audience’s attention and it works. I especially love how casually Marisa Brau-Reyes says the words. Despite this startling opening, Allston James writing has a wonderful gentleness to it and Marisa brings the words to life with real warmth and a poetic quality which is really lovely to listen to.

Fighter is a really important monologue. It is so easy to judge people in certain situations and there is also no doubt that the protagonist does something wrong, but it teaches you so much about how the biggest and most powerful-looking men can be the vulnerable ones; that their strength could be their weakness. More brilliant writing and direction from Renee A. Nixon with a moving performance from Brandon Odoom.

It’s a really great start to the festival and we look forward to reviewing more.