The Tristan Bates theatre is one of those delightful little venues you find in central London. Understated and rather hidden away, a diamond of a place.
Tonight’s event was a pair of plays with a scientific backdrop. The first ‘Membrane’ is about a women seeking a hymen reconstruction from a doctor whom it turns out was instrumental in the offending article not being wholly in place. This may sound to you like a strange subject for a play, and it was. It was also unfortunately not at all believable.
The script was extreamely weak, the direction poor and some of the acting also left a lot to be desired. I think even if this had not been the case, the premise for this play just wouldn’t work.
Play number two, ‘Mutiny’ was mildly better and after watching the first one, the title could have been an instruction to the audience. Andrew Pugsley played his role with some professionalism and Georgina Blackledge was fair too as the new mum in this story set in the future, where gene coding is beginning to be common place and the moral dilemma to use these emerging technological advances threaten to undermine the couple’s relationship. Again though, it is not believable and with a predictable script ended a very weak evening of theatre.
I’ve long been interested in the health sector and actually have in fact, previously worked in the industry. I had hoped this play would marry my interest in science and technology with my love of theatre, but unfortunate in this case it just didn’t work.
Reviewed by Nicky Sweetland