Review of Status at the Harlow Playhouse

ONE of the great things about the Pay What You Can series is that you really don’t know what you are going to see. Sure you get a feel from the preview but you have to wait and see.

This show by Chris Thorpe has been backed by the British Council, Goethe Institute London and the Collaborative Touring Network and Status weaves a number of issues such as citizenship, identity, culture and identity.

This isn’t obviously about Brexit, it is almost standing next to Brexit, even when you see it on what was supposed to be Brexit Day (March 29th)

Chris Thorpe’s stream of consciousness travelogue takes us from South London to Las Vegas to Singapore via Serbia. The narrative is interspersed with a number of songs. It is backed by fascinating visuals at the back.

It was not a show that this reviewer could warm to but at the same time, it felt like one of those many performances he has reviewed at Edinburgh Festival where he would need a drink, a ruminate and a discussion before sitting down to review. In fact, it go the thinking so much, that if it was on a run then he would go and see it again.

It is highly evocative as Christmas describes the London skyline, a conversation with a prairie dog, a bar room brawl in Serbia and a passport room in Heathrow but it is the images conjure dup through language that will stay with this reviewer, from the ramifications of “He is British” to the naming of rock formations to the conversation with a mannequin.

It was a shame that the audience was small but we would applaud all the agencies for backing work like this.