It’s fitting that Paul Miller, Artistic Director at the
Orange Tree Theatre, should end his first season with a piece of new writing. The
success of Pomona, Little Light and The Distance (for example) have all contributed to an eye-opening
season for the theatre. buckets follows
suit.
The first full-length play from writer Adam Barnard, buckets is quite the philosophical thinkpiece.
His subject: death. The internet is filled with bucket lists – 100 Things To Do
Before You Die etc – but if our lives can be considered buckets in which to
pour experience, how best to fill them?
For such a grand and serious subject, Barnard takes a light-hearted
approach that plays with form, tone and our expectations. As if looking through
a prism, buckets consists of thirty-three
short, separate yet thematically-connected scenes that explore life and death
from multiple angles, some more weighty than others. Some are just a handful of lines; others more fully-fledged
scenes. Further, the script isn’t divided into individual characters but
presented as simple text – it’s down to the interpretation of the director and
cast to delineate lines and suggest characterisation. Yet whether we’re
watching a popstar visiting a terminally ill patient, a girl contemplating
suicide or a metaphorical comparison between life and the video game Minecraft,
Barnard’s quirky and modern script ensures that throughout this is warm, funny,
endearing and moving in equal measure. Eventually he pushes the boundaries into
fantasy: in one scene entitled Terms And Conditions, the play veers into
science-fiction in its loftiest and most challenging moment.
This is, then, a highly conceptual piece. To that end,
director Rania Jumaily has done a wonderfully creative job of bringing the text
to life. She plays with our expectations for both profound and comic effect,
with actors playing roles not specific to their gender or age. The staging is
necessarily simple, almost a workshop style, but an excellent ensemble
performance sees the cast create a whole series of relatable and sympathetic human
characters that transcend their metaphorical purpose.
Indeed the play itself is something of a metaphor. Divided
into a series of moments, memories even, it constantly delivers the unexpected. It's not always a success, but its exploration of some deep questions is more than the sum of its fragmented
parts. It is life-affirming and upbeat, thought-provoking and moving. Watching
it should definitely be on your theatre bucket list.
4/5
Watch: buckets runs
at the Orange Tree Theatre until 27th June.
Images: Robert Day
