Mind the Gap

Written by Ella Carmen Greenhill, Rachel Worsley and Joe Ward
Showing at Unity Theatre
30th April – 1st May 2013

Reviewed by Jennifer Keegan

Mind the Gap is A Pimento Theatre production written by Ella Carmen Greenhill, Rachel Worsley and Joe Ward Munrow. They invite the audience to immerse themselves in the characters external and internal thoughts and watch as their stories unravel and become clear. Billed as an innovative theatrical experience which explores modern Britain and the gaps that exist between us and others - it certainly doesn’t disappoint.

The audience is ushered in to the theatre which has been unusually yet impressively set out to look like a tube platform and tube carriage in London, along with two of the actors we ‘board’ the tube and sit alongside the characters. As we sit in the obligatory tube carriage silence the tube shudders to a halt for reasons unknown and the characters have to interact. It starts with Nina, the over friendly, chatty Scouser who wonders why no one is taking, she urges people to open up and begins quizzing a Polish pot washer called Poitr who happily informs her of the ways of the tube and how he is leaving London as he hates the city and is heading back home to Poland. It’s not long before we meet the self assured cockney Darren who is angry, scared and suspicious of the reasons the tube has stopped after having experienced the previous tube bombings. Then finally we meet Faisul, a chemistry student from Bangladesh who quickly becomes the object of the other characters suspicions. As we sit there the characters go through many emotions and as the open up about their own lives, they allow their pre conceptions and ideas of cultural stereotypes to reign over their common ground and their rationality as the tension in the small carriage gradually builds.

Mind the Gap is beautifully written, allowing the audience to fully identify with each of the complex characters. In a modern world where fear is pushed down within as we continue to live our lives, we are reminded that it still lurks below and often rises to the surface when the unexpected happens. We are also reminded that for all our differences, we are still all just people, trying to make sense of our individual lives as we travel together in one carriage.

Printer friendly page

Sorry Comments Closed