Suzy Sillett wrote this one woman monologue, performed by the utterly believable Louise Bereford. It’s performed in Assembly’s ‘The Box’ which is four containers ‘glued’ together and placed inside a blast furnace. Well, it’s not the coolest place in the world other than, of course, what is happening on stage.
In three, maybe four, acts the 20-something (23, then 24 to be precise) millenial Louise Beresford shares her shit millennial life with us. Well, it’s not complete shit; it’s first world shit, but it’s real, proper, been there, seen that, done that shit. And it’s probably enough to require the support of a therapist (I think maybe the set – a ring of white paper – is a metaphor for psychoanalysis. We’re not talking suicide watch here – that would be too easy for the highly skilled Suzy Sillet, and would turn what is a brilliant sharing of life stories into a ‘drama’ and would, I think, have ruined its beautiful simplicity.
Instead we hear about dates, shit friends, loneliness, boyfriends, marriage and dying relatives. It’s all very real and I found it deeply affecting, having a millennial daughter (two in fact) that have been through this.
So, if you’re in that demographic I think you’ll really engage with a proper grown up examination of an uncomfortable age in uncomfortable times without even the merest whiff of cliche.
That is what makes it so skilled. Bravo!
