Review: Container (New Diorama Theatre)

Review by Sam Waite

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Life as we know it can feel like a lot, with endless and limitless sounds and images both available to be sought out and frequently thrust upon us whether wanted or not. There is a convenience to a worldwide network of news, information, and opinions at our fingertips, but it can become incredibly overwhelming, and allow for things we ought to be paying more attention to being drowned out. Container, a devised piece of theatre exploring polyphonic sound, gives plenty of food for thought surrounding what we intake, what we miss, and what we opt to not hear.

The show is performed by writer-director Alan Felden, alongside co-devisers Jemima Yong, Clara Potter-Sweet, Ben Kulvichit, and Tim Cape. Stood impassively as the audience trickle into the New Diorama’s black box space, the group begin in unison with the synchronised switching on of reading lights over their music stands, then begin the opening monologue in startling unison. Container uses sound, be it these synchronous moments, overlapping monologues, or lines read from out of sight, to make us think about what is being said, and what our minds have decided as the most worth listening to.

It is several minutes before anyone pulls focus, the quintet performing in harmony until Potter-Sweet’s words become bellowed over the sounds of others – curiously, as is so often the case, the impassioned nature of these words caused some, myself included, to simply try harder to tune into the calmer, less engaging ideas being presented. It's easy to walk away from Container unclear on what its central thesis was, or what agenda the creatives more or nah not have been pushing, and this feels entirely deliberate.

With the fourth wall entirely absent – Felden directly addresses the audience, the venue, the very nature of a black box theatre – the whole affair feels precarious, something so delicate it could fall apart at the slightest stumble. Unsurprisingly, this calls for an insular production, with performer-devisers present elsewhere on yhr project. Atmospheric, deeply effective lighting from Kulvichit helps to transform sequences where dialogue is suggested to be between two figurines, the actors crouched at the edges of the space, from a comedic detour into genuinely compelling scenes. Cape, meanwhile, steps in as musical director, working alongside sound designer Kendell Foster to create an eclectic soundscape in which everything is as audible as it needs to be, and only the audience’s own senses dictate what falls through the cracks.

With dramaturgy from Diana Damian Martin, Felden has crafted a play-cum-recital-cum-experiment in which the viewer is at once involved and distanced, spoken directly to but with no way of impacting the work. There's great power behind the work, and some truly thoughtful explorations around migrants, communal ignorance, and the warping of truth through Rashomon-esque misremembering. Each performer is compelling in their delivery when singled out, and falls perfectly back into line when their uniformity is required – strong, interesting individuals allow themselves to fall into a strangely commanding flatness, and even writer-director-deviser Felden is simply a small part of a greater whole.

To further describe Container, to delve into the stories told and the lines spoken, even to attempt to draw conclusions around its intentions or conclusions, feels futile. There are so many ideas raised, both stories told and approaches to how we tell them, that your experience with the material will be entirely different to my own. What can be said with certainty, is that the show is the work of a group of talented individuals, and that their creative ideas have united in something wholly unique, a product of many while shares a singular, clear vision.

Container plays at the New Diorama Theatre until April 12th

For tickets and information visit https://newdiorama.com/whats-on/container

Photos by Camilla Greenwell