Theatre makers have long been pushing the boundaries around staging works but using your own bathtub as a venue is certainly a new one. However, that is where I find myself to experience This is not a Theatre Company’s ‘immersive spa experience’ Play…in Your Bathtub 2.0.
Created at the height of covid lockdowns, and directed by E.B. Mee, this participatory, multi-sensory piece is a 20minute meditation bringing in poetic monologues, classical piano music, toe wiggling and ASMR-style watery sound effects. Whilst the bath is the recommended scene, you can also opt for a footspa, shower, or even a bucket.
It’s certainly a different experience, where you bring your own props of choice that relate to a specific sense (touch – warm water and bubble bath, taste – a beverage of your choice, smell – a scented candle). Between the lilting tones of Lynnette R Freeman who narrates the piece, and Lucy Yao’s calming piano, it’s very easy to soon find yourself drifting, half-listening and half-dozing in the way that any good spa experience might induce.
At the end of the day, this doesn’t really feel like theatre. For sure it’s a good league ahead your average relaxation app not least because of its ‘home-made’ style of creation. The monologues are pleasant and soothing, yet don’t inspire any philosophical lightbulbs – “Yes is a world…love is a place” doesn’t really feel like an epiphany. And you’ll have to be pretty confident of keeping your listening device of choice away from a bubbly demise.
But it is a perfect excuse to make yourself take a time-out – whether from a packed Fringe programme, or just from the stresses of day-to-day life (especially if you’re still nervous of heading back into crowded theatres)– and, by grounding yourself within your senses it achieves its immersive aims of holding you in a moment of stillness.
Play…in Your Bathtub 2.0 is available as part of the Camden Fringe festival until 31st August. Visit www.camdenfringe.com for tickets.
Reviewer: Lou Steggals
Reviewed: 8th August 2022
North West End UK Rating: ★★★
At the Institute of Plant Industry in Leningrad, two scientists Olga (Turku Koksel) and Nina…
Scotland’s very own drag superstar, Mary Mac, makes her debut at the Edinburgh Fringe this…
Summerhall's Red Lecture Theatre is a particularly appropriate home for Corpse. I always find it a…
International cabaret star Bernie Dieter returns to the Fringe with her spectacular line up of…
Elf Lyons is The Woman on the Edge arrived with considerable expectation, and for a while…
Francis Bacon distorted the human figure on canvas. Buggers asks what happened when that same capacity for…