Bitesize Festival Archives - North West End UK

2Feb

By Zara OdetundeNo Comments

London

Bury Me – Riverside Studios

Bury Me is billed as a one act comedic drama which has been put on at the Riverside Studios as a part of their Bitesize Festival, a theatre festival meant to platform and uplift new and emerging theatre talent. This story was told in two timelines. The timeline in which Nadia is trying to track down her brother Noah’s body to be able to hold his funeral and the timeline in which Noah and his family are preparing for him to undergo a surgery to treat his cancer. Being able to get to know the person that these characters lost was a great choice, so we can imagine the extent of Nadia’s pain more and more throughout the play. The highlight of this show was the exploration of the strength of the sibling bond. Explored by Gillian Konko and Peter Todd through their characters Nadia and Noah...

SAMAADHI – Riverside Studios

SAMAADHI, performed by Mohit Mathur and Ivanity Novak at the Riverside Studios as part of the Bitesize Festival, depicts India’s most significant and lamentable colonial event, the Jallianwala Baug Massacre. The audience is welcomed into the auditorium by an ongoing audio news report on the heart-wrenching episode blended with Indian instrumental music. While the news report seems befitting, direct, and aptly contextual, the melodious music does little to set the stage for a rather dark, traumatic, and painful performance to follow. The ‘show in development’ opens to a desolate stage with Mathur dragging a suitcase packed with burnt papers, a winter coat, a piece of cloth, a bullet, and a long stick summing up the minimalistic prop list for the show. The duo uses physical theatre and sp...

Sunday Morning – Riverside Studios

Mat, a successful, middle-aged photographer takes the audience on a heart-warming, epiphanic journey in the one-man show, Sunday Morning. Directed by Jenine Collocott and written by Nick Warren, it was performed by James Cuningham at the Riverside Studios as part of the Bitesize Festival. On learning that his girlfriend is pregnant, a stunned Mat goes for a jog in his neighbourhood to do some “thinking.” The stage with some grey blocks covered with Sunday newspaper collages turned into a neighbourhood in Johannesburg with vivid descriptions offered by Warren and skilfully articulated by Cuningham. The show was delightfully packed with Mat’s reflections on success, independence, and the uninvited role of becoming a father in his 40s. Without making Mat sound like a man-child, Warren’s...