Camden People's Theatre

13-11-2008
Doris Dufus  0 

CPT is a great place to support new, innovative or challenging theatre. Local groups and local playwright’s work are given prominence in this small theatre space. Long may it prosper!

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08-11-2007
natalie pilato

Johnny Deep Nov 2007As a monologue Johnny Deep is an ambitious and multi-faceted piece. On enters with the visible figure of our character lying flat on his back in a deep sleep. Once seats are taken our character awakens to what is a fairly typical bedroom scene and the character looks out into what we assume is the image of his muse, his idol Johnny Depp. So the conversation begins.The play is an interesting exploration of a number of issues. Most obviously it centres around obsession: Our character addresses every element of his life to an image that he looks up to on a supposed wall behind us, the audience, like an altar to a god. But within this obsession we witness the complexities of his expatriation, his hopes and disappointments in his new life, his conflicts with sexuality, class, identity and language. The dialogue reflects all of these aspects as our character repeats Johnny�s name innumerable times within the first moments of the play and continues to return to this name as though it were a mantra or a prayer; something that he clings to to hold himself together as the rest of his life appears to drift away. The language, in sync to our hero, intelligently flits between soundbites and poetic freeflow speech, interspersed with references to the mother-tongue of our character. At times our hero�s accent is thick with Chilean strains and at others it reaches a comical nouveau- London twang.As it progresses the audience is allowed glimpses into what and who our character is and how his situation is reflected in his obsession. The basic set is simple, with an image projected onto the background behind the actor to locate him. However, super-imposed onto this image is another semi-transparent screen in front of the actor that has further images projected onto it. I particularly enjoyed the apparent rambling typings in the corner of the screen that appeared on occasions like jumbled, thoughtless emails. I also enjoyed the use of the moving background image that moved in sync with the actor as he appeared to walk through desolate London streets, or dance in a nightclub. There are flashes of comedy intermingled with his turmoil and observations on art, drama and youth that allow the audience a rest from the intensity of the darker parts of his monologue. Overall a complicated but provocative play that should leave you with plenty to digest during an intense 50 minutes.

18-07-2007
anon

Bicycle - 07/06An unusual but fascinating and moving play - great performances from an ensemble cast.

17-07-2006
mark ratcliffe

Red Oleander - 07/06Brave attempt with strong actors pulling it off. Bishu and the King in particular carried the play through, without them it could appear just dull and lengthy. With them, it was just amazing

15-07-2006
adam kiels

Red Oleander - 07/06Slow pace, the one thing that kept me alive and my ears & eyes cocked was the wonderful tone of the Sadao Ueda, and the glorious skills of Sally Okafor. The singing by Sadao Ueda was just awesome and wholly unexpected and uplifting. A strong but intiging mystical aura surounds this actor that makes you keep watching no matter how good or bad the scene is. His physicallity and acute awareness of his fellow actors and positioning was a pleasure to see. This actor I feel sure will be around for a long time. Whilst a challenging play and bravely performed, it really suffers from being a tab too long (monologues) in parts but well worth the visit just to see the awesome performances of the two main actors. Wel done Myriad.