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A CurtainUp London Review
Genesis Inc.
There is a side story about Sharon (Clare Perkins) who is a victim of domestic violence and her social worker Jeff, but I am unclear as to where this interacts with the plot except that Sharon has four children and ease of conceiving. Another unpleasant diversion is of Serena playing the Genesis Inc. relaxation tapes with bizarre images projected and voiced by the spare female cast of her reproductive anatomy: Serena's vagina, Serena's ovary. Karl Marx (Harry Enfield with a wig and falling off stick on moustache, and beard) makes a comment on sex and capitalism but it was wasted on me. This scene is clunky and produces more grimacing than grinning. Miles refuses to act as sperm donor for Bridget but their discussion gives him an idea to sell his Grade A sperm, which of course she will see as a gross betrayal. Act Two starts with a comedy sketch based on the aged conception of Isaac from the Bible by Abraham and Sarah at 99 years old. It is an excuse for actors to dress up in biblical clothes and for some of the audience to titter and of course for Harry Enfield to play God. There is a note in the programme about the amount of wrangling and shepherding by the director Laurie Sansom: "the evolution of the script in the rehearsal room" to bring the play "to full readiness". That's as may be but the finished article suffers from a hugely wide set, conversations behind upper panels which make the speakers hard to hear, especially Bridget's CEO Larissa's (Clare Perkins) odd accent. I asked someone in the interval what accent he thought we were listening to. "Australian, I think," he said. We do learn that Arthur Darvill as Miles can sing, although his side romance with a Catholic priest Father Scales (Arthur Wilson) is again a red herring. Hence, inn my opinion this chaotic, contrived and over themed play is not ready for the main house. I wonder how many of the extra ideas were inserted in rehearsal. Here is the playwright talking about them, "We have an ensemble of nine experienced and brilliant actors, all of whom have contributed so many ideas and thoughts and details that I'm in awe of how flexible and creative they've been, helping build the characters and world as we're going along." Genesis Inc's creation is a shambles!
| Search CurtainUp in the box below PRODUCTION NOTES Genesis Inc. by Jemma Kennedy Directed by Laurie Sansom Starring: Harry Enfield, Ritu Arya, Arthur Darvill, Laura Howard, Oliver Alvin-Wilson With: Kirsty Besterman, Shobu Kapoor, Clare Perkins, Arthur Wilson Design: Jess Curtis Sound Design: Gareth Fry Lighting Design: Oliver Fenwick Composer: Zara Nunn Movement: Georgina Nunn Video Design: Ian William Galloway Running time: Two hours 40 minutes with an interval Box Office: 020 7722 9301 Booking to 28th July 2018 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 2nd July 2018 performance at the Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, London NW3 3EU (Tube: Swiss Cottage) Index of reviewed shows still running REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
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