reviews
"..terrific, original, great writing.."
Brian Blessed
"...With characters including a Mephistophelian know-it-all, a bolshie American tourist, an uptight academic, and his (soon to be ex) girlfriend with a penchant for sex in police cells...
...Hildegard Neil convicingly plays the bumbling, determined American tourist lost in purgatory... ...the standout performance comes from Ben Owukwe with a brilliant demonstration of his playing range and ability to take on a wide variety of characters in rapid succession...
...Just like the Escher staircase that plays such a central role in the narrative form of the play, a number of possibilities for what the play could be a metaphor never quite coalesces into a single meaning - perhaps it's about female identity, or perhaps it is about the flexibility of self perception in a broader sense, or maybe its a lesson in the teachings of Zen. I suspect that it is all three - and probably a great deal besides... exploring all these possibilities is one of the greatest attractions of the play...
...I Am Not An I is a very clever look at what it means to be an idividual (or not)..."
Extra! Extra!
critical comment on early drafts of the play include
Royal Court.
"...neatly conceived... inventive in character and theme..."
"...[the lead female character is the play's] ....greatest triumph. Simultaneously irritating and heartbreaking she is complex and charismatic... the exploration of psychology and madness in this play is original, inventive and effecting... theatre is the only place for it. ...it asks important questions about the nature of reality... Importantly and perhaps essentially, setting a piece about the suspension of disbelief in a theatre gives it a quizzical and inescapable irony..."
Soho Theatre
"..At the centre of this play is an impossible dichotomy - how does one write a play about the way language imposes limitations on human behaviour, using that very same "limiting" language? The fact that the play thrives on this seemingly impossible dilemma is partly why it is so succesful...
...Set principally on Eschers print Asscendiing & Descending (you know, the famous staircase that never seems to get higher) we find ourselves in a disorientating - yet compelling - scenario which continuously shifts and changes. On the steps, an American woman (the wonderful Hildegard Neil) is lost in literal and metaphorical heavy fog. She is confronted by a stanger (the amazing Ben Onwukwe) who mercilessly harrangues and probes her about the nature of her existence. Intercut with with this story is the drama of a young couple (Emma Fletcher and Robert Wainwright) who are falling badly out of love. As they twist verbal knives into each other, the tension between them crackles with almost tangible menace, particularly as the question arises of whether Gina is having an affair with Marco (Edward d'Arcy Hatton) a bruising thug of a security guard..
...The question that nags at us is - what is the connection between the man persecuting the tourist and the lovers? While act one sets up the questions, act two provides the answers but not the ones you expected. As the tension cranks up higher and higher, nothing is certain but everything is totally beleivable...
...As one of the characters so elloquently says, "You can't work with the human mind without getting your hand dirty." Stephen Hunt has got his hands satisfyingly dirty with this play. Dig in - and enjoy.
