I didn't know anything about this one except that the company behind it, Complicité, did last year's The Encounter, so I was unprepared for what a journey it turned out to be, the meta-theatrical elements which are put in the foreground from the start by writer/performer Bryony Kimmings paying off spectacularly over the work's latter stages, as the 'guide' she thought she was writing is shaped by her own experiences (especially her newborn son's illness) and the relationship she forms with Lara Veitch along the way, and the seeds planted earlier - the experiences of Bryony herself being prominent, the kingdom of the unwell being like a forest, the breaking down of the fourth wall - blossom with real dramatic and emotional force. I haven't seen anything quite like it, and nor have I seen so many tears in a theatre audience ever before.
(w/ Cass)
(w/ Cass)
