24, 23, 22 – Omnibus Theatre

24, 23, 22 presented by Chronic Insanity is a clash of characters, one travelling in reverse whilst the other chronological. Two strangers introduce themselves through abstract writing that occasionally rhymes with an underlying consistent beat from the DJ who stands in the middle narrating the two different lives with different theme music. Previously performed on zoom, the live version was underwhelming and confusing as to what the message of the piece was.

From what I believe, we are made to question how often we check up on people with reference to mental health and feeling invisible to the crowds around us. However, once learning that he had seriously injured his ex-girlfriend’s father and attempted to rob the woman next to him I had a lack of sympathy for the choices he was making. With reference to a true story of a woman who died but not discovered till 3 years later I can only assume that the writer wants us to connect and sympathise with our thieving storyteller, on top of that slightly shames the female storyteller on how quickly she judged this guy and suggested she should have put aside how threatened she felt by his attempted robbery. I’m not sure if I completely connected to how this was perceived but I understand what was being commented on. I feel like the way it was approached was slightly one sided and glorified a person who makes bad choices that are particularly violent and more importantly violent towards women. This action as previously mentioned is happening in reverse, simultaneously our other storyteller tells their tale in chronological which finally clashes in the middle where we finally understand why these two characters are on stage together. I found this very difficult to keep up with and struggled to understand the stakes in their lives that failed to impact me that deeply and ultimately caused no emotional response to the climatic ending. I did enjoy the humour of the script and found moments Flea-bag esque and wanted to stay longer with this story rather than moving back and forth.

Throughout this we have a DJ standing centre stage on a very bland set who underscores our characters stories. Unfortunately, I failed to feel the true impact of this as it was fairly quiet although both actors had hand-held mics covering most of their faces, the ‘scuzzy beats’ were slightly behind the energy of the actors and never could quite match up to give any rhythm to the speech. When something is described as gig theatre, I would have been expecting a bit more of an energetic soundtrack however it felt quite held back from how adventurous this story was. I was also very distracted to have a DJ centre stage as I couldn’t connect what having their physical presence there added to the story other than occasional on-stage chatter and water breaks with the actor not talking.

Overall, I failed to enjoy this piece mainly for my major confusion as to what I was bringing away from it. Space was made for metaphors that were written very beautifully as the music stopped but then ruined by an email chime as we were thrown back into a very confusing story with the music catching up, never quite on time with the actors jumping back in.

Interesting experience but not sure I brought anything from it other than confusion.

Playing until 21st May, https://www.omnibus-clapham.org/24-23-22/

Reviewer: Alice Rose

Reviewed: 6th May 2022

North West End UK Rating: ★★