The Wild Unfeeling World - 9 out of 10
Casey Jay Andrews & Joanne Hartstone Presents
TICKETS:
The story of Moby Dick is one that most are vaguely familiar
with - a white whale, a captain bent on revenge, etcetera, etcetera (or so
Casey Jay Andrews reminds us in the informal intro to this show) - but The
Wild Unfeeling World certainly provides a fresh interpretation of this old
tale.
In The Yurt, furnished with only a blue, painted tarp
positioned like an incoming wave, Dylan - a twenty-something struggling through
a variety of miseries that have occurred in a depressingly short space of time
- is lying on the floor of a multi-storey car park, trying to find the
motivation to get up off the floor. She embarks on a strange and ambitious
quest: walk across London to reach the Sea Life aquarium, attempting to restore
some sense of joy to her life through the power of childhood nostalgia.
On the other side of London, Captain Ahab - a three-legged
ginger cat - sets out to seek revenge on Dylan (and her white whale of a car, a
Renault Clio, numberplate M0B1).
Although Andrews takes to the stage alone, clever
accompaniment from figurines, music and the occasional snippet of Moby Dick in
film form (complete with a ginger cat animated in, which is, of course,
accurate to the original novel) brings this story to life. Andrews is a
spellbinding performer: somehow balancing the energy of the distraught Dylan,
clinging onto hope and sanity with her fingernails; with the relentless and
hate-filled Captain Ahab; and with the playful yet empathetic captain/narrator
who leads the audience through this storytelling voyage.
Throughout the show, Andrews seamlessly weaves together
informational monologues and snippets of dialogue (emphasised as she speaks
into the lone microphone at the back of the yurt) within her powerful
narrative. The fun-fact segments bring deeper meaning to the plot - in this
story, pareidolia describes the very human tendency to view suffering as an
inescapable pattern rather than a momentary struggle, while a monologue on
military sonar creates a shiver of climate anxiety in the audience as we learn that
they broadcast at the same frequency that whales use to navigate.
At the same time, the story continues to flow, portraying
acts of kindness at the hands of strangers that make Dylan's journey possible.
The story builds to its climax via a geographic odyssey through London, in
which the perspectives of Dylan and Captain Ahab draw close and then collide.
At the same time, Andrews draws on a simultaneously devastating and hopeful
true story to inform the climactic moment and ending of this incredible
one-woman play.
Andrews’ performance drags the audience down into Dylan's
anxiety, suffocating in its mundanity, via the detritus of modern life - damp,
coffee-stained clothes and a moving box labelled “notebooks, sketchbooks, etc”
acting as metaphorical touchstones for her suffering. However, the beauty of The
Wild Unfeeling World is its thematic core, as we see that even in the
depths of despair, there is always someone willing to reach out a hand. The
bittersweet ending may or may not be book-accurate, but I much prefer the joy
and hope that Andrews embodies in the final moments of the play, that so
evocatively show the power of asking for help when you need it.
- Georjette Mercer
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