Review: TUESDAY Is An Intriguing Look Into The Murmurings Of The Mind On A Seemingly Normal Day

Wednesday 20th February 2018, 6:45pm, Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir

Louris van de Geer's short play TUESDAY presents an unusual look into the minds of four seemingly separate individuals on an apparently normal weekday. Directed by Nell Ranney for Sign of the Acorn, this is an artfully expressed bite sized theatrical experience presented by four fine performers.

Isabel Hudson provides an installation art style set of rows of milk bottles arranged on a white floor in front of a backdrop that features the day of the week in which the story takes place. Performers Frances Duca, Duncan Fellows, Bridie McKim and Tom Anson Mesker head the aisles of bottles from their perches on folding chairs. Hudson defines the characters with their attire from Duca in prim 1950's housewife style complete with perfect coif, Fellows in middle class middle management business shirt and pants, McKim in school uniform and Anson Mesker in the casual clothes of an underfunded young adult.

The premise of the work is that TUESDAY comprises 4 monologues that interweave. Talking direct to the audience, an insight is given into each person, detailing their thoughts as their day unfolds. Minor observations of what they see and feel are blended with their opinions with some surprising revelations. Its quickly apparent that each feels in some way isolated from the world around them, whether it be on a family level or a broader societal level but they each find themselves in the same place on the same day, giving their view on the world around them, even though they never really meet.

The quartet deliver an intriguing insight into the characters' lives so that even though the work seems like mundane mutterings of restless minds the audience is waiting eagerly for the twist. Van de Geer has built on stereotypes which the performers convey through both vocal tone and pace and the nuanced physicality. Duca nervously fidgets with her hands and jewelry whilst McKim picks boredly at her nails. Stories are described with gestures even when the actors are constrained to their seats or hemmed in by the lines of bottles.

It is hard to say much more about TUESDAY given it is a compact show, but it is well worth catching as it has a nice complexity as the stories come together and the different responses to the day are expressed. Presented as part of Belvoir's 25A program that supports low cost, independent theatre and emerging theatrical talent, TUESDAY is an interesting and well crafted piece of theatre and it will be interesting to see what else Sign of the Acorn comes up with next.