This amusing, but oddly touching
piece shares a much more profound story than is initially suggested by the
sporadic, comedy sketch-like recreations of Siddons’ anecdotes pre-filmed and
projected onto a screen behind her during the performance. Richard DeDominici’s clips capture hilariously Siddons’
experiences after moving to “Twickenham – home of rugby” where she is made to
feel isolated and ostracised and which is what ultimately leads to her struggle
with chronic loneliness.
These clips, along with Siddons’ dry and
direct delivery could easily fool you into believing you were watching an Internet
vlog, in its starkly open and colloquial attitude.
The darkly humorous beginning masks
the gravity of Siddons’ initial descent into loneliness, which leaks out to
reveal a much more toxic truth which she bears quite openly in this 60 minute
open address to the audience. The writing is excellent – witty, honest and
delightfully punchy.
However the performances from both
Annie Siddons and her co-performer, Nicki Hobday, who assists by portraying her
when Siddons is busy narrating, seem somewhat reticent and lack a charisma that
could champion the rich and sardonic text to fully realise its comic potential.
I considered whether it would therefore have been more effective to employ someone
else to tell the story, but the answer was, absolutely not. This story belongs
entirely to Annie, and what it might lack in performance verve, it certainly
makes up for in being so genuine.
In a particularly poignant scene,
Siddons epitomises everything she loves about her life and her London (before the move to zone 5) with Frank Sinatra’s classic
‘London by Night.’ As she drunkenly sings along to this, alone on her birthday,
her deafening chronic loneliness overpowers this mellow melody and we hear Lil
Wayne blasted over Sinatra instead. Her loneliness became engulfing and
stifling, and reminded us that we are all just treading water – always
dangerously close to being drowned out by Lil Wayne ourselves. (Not that there
is anything wrong with Lil Wayne).
What could firstly be mistaken for a
modern stand up routine with quirky AV to enhance the punch lines, becomes a
candid and coarse account of the severe and unexpected which life can bring.
Review by Chester Clark
Rating: ★★★★
