Revu Launa
“Launa”
This term's Oxford University Drama Studio shows must have a theme, as Rowan Brown's Launa is the 4th play I will have seen that is centred (at least partially) on grief. I'm excited tonight, because Tidal Theatre's inaugural production promises inventive physical theatre and puppetry, although I have not forgotten the concerns I've expressed in past weeks' reviews about the challenge of covering topics like grief effectively.
Brown's new play centres on Edna (Sanaa Pasha), a grieving mother whose life begins to fall apart when she is haunted by the memory of her daughter, Launa (Coco Scanlon), who appears in uncanny adult form, although in reality she died young. Edna's relationships with her husband (Callum Beardmore) and her sister (Kitty Brown) splinter, as she struggles desperately to hold onto what she has lost. Rather than balancing grief with humour (Your Funeral, In Praise of Love), Launa helps its plot along with dark fantasy elements, puppetry, and physical theatre. Theatrically, this is the style of Joel Horwood's The Ocean at the End of the Lane adaptation, or the Bristol Old Vic's staging of A Monster Calls (both also dealing with grief). Narratively, it probably fits into the same subgenre as Coraline. The big difference, I suppose, is that all of those stories are told from the perspective of children, and are about mothers - Launa flips this narrative on its head.
It's a promising concept, and the combination of dark fantasy stories with magical realist theatre-making can be incredibly effective (not just for kids). Brown (who also directs alongside Emily Polhill) understands this, and utilises it for some genuine chills-inducing moments. That being said, there are some script issues, and a big one is pacing. The first scene quite quickly throws us into one of the play's many short arguments, and it seems like the cast are a little hesitant to engage with it, as if even they are aware that the conflict is not quite warranted so early on. I am also not sure Launa quite deserves its 80+ minute runtime, and I suspect some latter scenes could be cut without any significant loss to the narrative's effect on an audience. All this to say, Brown's script exhibits a wealth of strong ideas and sequences, but some reshuffling and editing could massively improve the flow of energy through it.
This brings us to the production's other main issue: the energy of the lead performances remains unfortunately constant and somewhat flat throughout. Arguments that might be fierce or exhausting fail to fully escalate; moments when characters dance wildly feel awkward rather than cathartic; it all just seems a little hesitant. Pasha captures, with some skill, the fragile shock and emptiness of a woman searching for meaning after losing what gave it to her. All of the lead performances, though, would be massively benefitted by greater variety (actually one of the most important elements of most performances). Intonation and tone remain generally constant across consecutive line deliveries, which, when the dominant emotion is grief, leaves the action onstage feeling somewhat relentless for the audience. Greater attention to varying energy and tone in dialogue-heavy sequences (particularly since grief actually makes different people act in a wide range of "strange" and unpredictable ways) would do a huge amount to galvanize these lead performances.
These problems with the play's lead performances and dialogue-heavy scenes might be caused by too great a self-awareness that they are not really the main attraction here. Actually, Launa's strength is in its beautiful sequences of physical theatre and puppetry, which range from magical to frightening. Actually, the ensemble (which, in addition to Beardmore and Brown, boasts Wren Talbot-Ponsonby, Mary Stillman, Rosie Sutton, and Katie Maybin) deserves most of the credit for the production's strongest and most moving moments. Particularly mesmerising is the manipulation of a sheer lazer gauze which lends itself perfectly to the creation of rippling waves (a technique also used in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, in a sequence I had to write many an essay on for A Level). At one point, the gauze is combined ingeniously with the production's puppetry (designed by Rachael Nicholson), which is simple but delightful. A whale, a crab, a rabbit and more are brought to life in front of us, and I can't help but grin as we're transported into a world of childlike wonder.
“Launa”
These ensemble sequences are made all the more mesmerizing by Ben Tilley's lighting design, as onstage practical lamps are wielded to effectively highlight different characters and take complete control over the audience's attention. This is a very impactful technique which furthers the atmosphere of magic and intrigue Brown and Polhill create in these moments. I cannot help but think, though, that this wonderful atmosphere is wasted when it is constricted to only a few specifically ensemble-focused scenes. For the majority of the production's runtime, a broad, warm wash signals that we are in "lead-actors-speaking-dialogue mode," and I find myself waiting impatiently for the next interlude of physical and visual flair.
It will probably be unsurprising by now that I think Launa would be a far more effective and powerful piece if it abandoned altogether its prolonged periods of conventional, somewhat static conversation, and leaned fully into being a work of physical theatre and puppetry. As I leave the Burton Taylor Studio, I think hopefully about a different version where ensemble work and puppets help to tell every step of the story, dialogue is integrated into choreographed sequences, and onstage lamps are used to illuminate lead performances without dividing them from the theatrical elements that give Launa its magic. I must be clear here - Brown and Polhill have given us an incredibly refreshing and hypnotising piece of theatre, which powerfully utilises techniques (almost always neglected in the Oxford University Drama Society) that bring us close to what people mean when they say "theatre magic." My personal preference is only that their deft use of these techniques might be given more space to breathe and allowed to entirely envelop this script. This creative team and ensemble have, after all, proved that they would be more than capable of doing so.
3.5/5
Thanks are due to my friend Izzy Moore for the insights of our usual post-show chat.
Review by George Loynes
The link to George Loynes’s review blog is: https://roomwithreviewblog.blogspot.com/?m=1&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAadKaD9DWn-5mwBnPczPWh3KXF0Wm5MTE_D9WbXEiWAbpuhhg9yNdnyYWKaYSg_aem_MX4-paKRuQoHXi7vgFXpPw
“Launa”
