A History of Paper – Traverse Theatre

World Premier

Set in a different time, on the eve of the millennium, before the dawn of the paperless office, Oliver Emanuel’s, A History of Paper, started life as a radio drama. Then in 2016, song writer and composer Gareth Williams contacted the playwright to suggest that it might make a ‘good musical’. Tragically, Emanuel passed away from brain cancer in December 2023, aged just 43, so sadly never got to see the finished product. Which is a real shame, because it is a sweet thing.

Emma Mullen, and Christopher Jordan-Marshall play journalist and would-be writer as an unnamed couple who sing their relationship into existence. Whilst he is a hoarder of paper memories, she couldn’t care less. He has a boxful of tickets and lists and menus and plane tickets, and a half finished novel, she has just herself. When that is tragically taken away all that remains is the box of paper to remind him of all the happy times.

William’s sweetly melodic score is brought to life by pianist, Gavin Whitworth, who occupies an ever-present liminal space between performers and audience, and also adds voice accompaniment rather beautifully late on. The whole piece sounds exquisite in the intimate, thrust environment of Traverse 2, where you always feel very much, part of the action.

There is a clever use of projection, no more so than one of the most poignant moments in the play which sees a grainy video of George Wylie’s full sized paper boat sailing down the Clyde in 1989, a moving symbol of the death of the ship industries, and the birth of a new imagining.

The lyric ‘What Use Is Paper’ runs through the piece, sweetly at first and then questioningly, and ultimately with an exclamation mark added, only finding its truth in the final scenes.

A bit too saccharine for my taste, perhaps a dollop of angst in their marital years would have made this relationship feel more real, and the whole production have a bit more bite. However, if you like your tea with sweetener added there is nothing at all wrong with this beautifully brewed production.

A nostalgia laden piece which transports you back to a time before Email, when post it notes littered our lives and ‘zoom’ was an ice lolly.

Reviewer: Greg Holstead

Reviewed: 17^th August 2024

North West End UK Rating: