The waiting room after death resembles a doctor’s reception room in Alex Berry’s design – Joe Price’s flickering lighting design showcases it as a bit rundown and in need of some TLC. It fits the current public sector in many ways, as those that enter prepare themselves for their interview to determine where to go on to. Upstairs or downstairs are the choices that receptionist Eve (Emma Dennis-Edwards) gives the new patients/ applicants. Dennis-Edwards is ballsy and blunt, a stereotypical administrator who is more concerned with what to have for lunch than the fate of the people that pass through the doors.Artemis Fitzalan Howard’s Gate is set up by Sadie Spencer to instantly resemble a sitcom, one that is cleverly observational to the millennium’s atheistic tendencies of the Western world. But it’s all a bit pastiche and superficial – Spencer and Howard fail to incorporate in the layering that goes with faith, belief and penance.
Howard’s script has some apt nods to Christianity – all characters have Biblical names – and the dialogue around dying is addressed without worry of the topic. Howard drops her characters into the situation and forces everyone to deal with the matter at hand; she doesn’t tiptoe around and as such deserves credit for not being afraid to address a sobering thought so plainly.
But there needs to be some more light and shade in Gate – the hilarity of the situation is brought out by Spencer and the actors effectively, but everyone feels less comfortable in tackling the emotional counter that surrounds death. The balance is too in favour of a light-hearted farce, rather than a more impactful piece of thought-provoking theatre. Adding in a quartet that sings the Hallelujah Chorus or the Lacrimosa from Mozart’s Requiem is not sufficient, particularly when the singers don’t always hit their respective harmonies with enough conviction.
Rebecca (Eleanor Henderson) is the highlight of the theatrical performances, a woman who accepts that she was a bitch in life and so is happy that she hasn’t been fast-tracked downstairs. Henderson feels most comfortable in her role, inhabiting her character without overthinking or underacting the part. Her non-boyfriend Luke (Joe McArdle) brings comic timing that reveals McArdle’s proficiency in the stand-up circuit, but the others, while competent, aren’t memorable enough. There seems to be too many line fumbles or situational slips in Spencer’s production, such that it doesn’t feel like everyone is entirely at home with the material.
Gate makes good use of The Cockpit’s mezzanine for its angelic quartet and final moments of reckoning. Howard’s script has some real potential – if it can better address the balance, add poignancy to its emotional points, it will become an important play that emphasises society’s apparent distrust of faith and disdain for those that choose to believe.
Writer: Artemis Fitzalan Howard
Director: Sadie Spencer
Musical Director: Harry Haden-Brown
Designer: Alex Berry
Sound Designer: Rachael Murray
Lighting Designer: Joe Price
Cast: Luke Ward; Charlotte Chistensen; Jack Reitman; Louise Grayford; Emma Dennis-Edwards; Wil Coban; Eleanor Henderson; Joe McArdle; Katie Sherrard
As Emma Rice leaves The Globe Theatre in the spring of 2018 she leaves behind a legacy, a legacy that has changed The Globe indefinitely. Shared light or no shared light Rice has transformed a “museum theatre” and a tourist attraction into a venue that is now seen as relevant and approachable as it once again lures people of all backgrounds, ages and classes, by staging productions which are rooted in universal socio-political truths. The world premiere of Tristan Bernay’s BOUDICA is no different, as it puts a famous tribal heroine centre stage and aims to make a comment about the current political climate in Britain.