Review: ANOTHER EAVESDROPPING, Jack Studio Theatre

Unlike looking, hearing is involuntary - it just happens. And you don't need to be out and about for long before you'll hear people saying the most bland, and the most extraordinary, things. John Patterson asked his cast to listen what they could hear in London in 2022, then he transcribed what was recorded (let's not go to the ethics just now...) and the company have converted these real conversations and incidents into verbatim theatre.

It's a lot of fun! What emerges from a montage of scenes lasting between a few seconds and about ten minutes, is a composite portrait of how we live today, the frustrations, the fears, the folllies. The best last about the same time as a pop song (a form with which they share much in common) allowing the splendid ensemble cast the opportunity to create a sense of character and then (if so required) deliver a 'set-up and punch' finish.

Acting in this genre of theatre is a specific skill - you have to embrace the stop-starts of natural conversation, speed up and slow down in places that do not always enhance the storytelling (because a lot of people are not natural storytellers) and catch the soul of your character within seconds with just a prop, an accent or a gesture to work with. Mostly, these challenges are met with charm and generosity by a (mainly) young cast.

The two extended scenes are the least entertaining - a long complaint in a pharmacy that keeps looping back on itself and a couple who can't see eye-to-eye about a relative's addiction - but they are required to extend the canvas on which this largely benign portrait of London is drawn. Things might be just too chummily privileged without that grit. The best give you that delicious "Oh yeah..." feeling as you recognise exactly who is speaking and why. "Been there. Seen it. Done it.", one, sometimes sheepishly, finds oneself thinking.

There isn't much of a fourth wall (we're greeted by a cast member after the interval for example) and that draws us in as co-conspirators in the production - yep, we're eavesdropping on the eavesdroppers! Very meta.

With the cast on stage throughout, walking forward to its centre to deliver their vignettes (a format we recognise from many a comedy show) nobody outstays their welcome and, if one scene doesn't work for you, there's another coming right behind it, so you don't have to wait for long.

So Bravo! for the Jack Studio Theatre and the Angel Theatre Company for engaging with life as it's lived today, taking on a relatively rare and always tricky form and getting as many laughs from the house as I've heard pretty much anywhere this year. London needs this cheeky, affectionate look at itself right now to sutain it through the dark nights to come - and you do gain a renewed faith that the men and women we've seen in the play will get through.

Another Eavesdropping is at the Jack Studio Theatre until 1 October

Photo Credit: Jack Studio Theatre

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