Review: Nativities @ Live Theatre
By Victoria Levay on February 17, 2012 in Stage
If spending all day at work just to leave and skip along to Live Theatre for a play about, erm, work isn’t your idea of a fun time, the good news is that Nativities has nothing to do with spreadsheets and everything to do with dysfunctional relationships, unplanned pregnancies and inter-office bitching. And to be honest, it’s pretty darn good.
The play is set in a call centre and pivots around new admin assistant Stella who is trying her best to fit in with her new colleagues. From there the plot branches off into different strands, delving into each of the characters’ lives and unravelling how work and home life overlap, often with disastrous consequences.
The pace is fast – writer Zoe Cooper’s pithy, short exchanges of dialogue create a real momentum that is frequently rhythmical and embracing. In fact the characters don’t totally interact like normal people would – they’re more cutting, overtly vulnerable and fundamentally egotistical. Because of this tedious office conversation is suddenly more alive and weighted with layers of meaning. Cooper handles the unravelling of these hidden meanings expertly; revelations are well-plotted and so the audience stay with the story all the way through. There are a few places where the pace slows but bursts of energy soon follow – the office party in particular is a true highlight – to put the plot back into forward motion.
Zoe Cooper’s pithy, short exchanges of dialogue create a real momentum that is frequently rhythmical and embracing.
However, Nativities does have a definite weakness and that’s with Stella herself, played by Samantha Neale. For a central protagonist, she’s painfully passive and is often reacting rather than driving the action. While this is obviously a conscious narrative decision and does make for decent character arc, Neale doesn’t seem quite settled into the role yet and her shyness is often jittery and over-stressed. In a play entrenched with dark comic touches delivered so confidently by the secondary characters, Stella too easily disappears into the background.
It’s through the supporting cast that colour and commotion envelope the office and conflict ignites. Melanie Hill’s Madge is a particular delight as the gossip-hungry and often bullish team leader, and Christopher Connel’s kind-hearted dreamer Clive is a notably genuine and quietly hilarious character.
Nativities is like your average day at work but on a hallucinogenic; everything is heightened and more pronounced. You sort of know these people on stage but they’re delivered in a richer, more oddly-shaped package – and even the staging plays with perception. This play may not suit all tastes but I found it a wonderful, original piece of new theatre that really marks Zoe Cooper out as a quite remarkable talent. And big thumbs up to Live Theatre for standing behind such a commanding new voice.
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