4 STARS: September 16-17. "Captivating" is Joanna Price's verdict on this one-woman political comedy at Clapham's Bread & Roses Theatre depicting the struggles of the millennial generation
Gabriel Cabral
She Arrives
A modern political comedy discussing the struggles of the millennial generation thrust into a world of debt, 9-5 jobs and shared housing, this show tells the story of one woman’s attempt at a revolution.
Entering into The Bread & Roses theatre in Clapham to view a one-woman show was a completely new experience for me. Having never been to a smaller theatre than the Thorndyke in Leatherhead and my only experience of a one-woman show being the performance of ‘Why don't you like me: a bitter woman's journey through life’ that Chandler attends in the TV show, Friends, I did not know what to expect.
The dramatic opening leaves me none the wiser: Sadia Gordon, star of the performance, runs into the room and sits on a chair – the solo prop of the performance – staring silently at the crowd.
The performance begins with “I suppose you’re wondering how I got here” followed by the unravelling of a story from leaving university and entering the ‘real world’. I found the situation immediately relatable. As a recent graduate myself, Sadia’s issues of “modern poverty” and the pressures which come with leaving university were definitely some which resonated with me, and I’m guessing with the rest of an audience, most in their 20s.
After highlighting these problems and her being “sick of being sick of it” the second half of the performance takes a turn with Sadia seeking revenge on one man from the newspaper for being the cause of everything unjust in her life, beginning a personal war. Remaining humorous throughout, it sometimes felt as though the plot got lost as the character digressed from the issue at hand and her pranks on the targeted male escalated.
Concluding with a physical confrontation with a fellow revolutionist, the young woman realises that through her violent actions she has sunk to the same level as the very people she is attempting to revolt against. Sadia then ends the performance as she began, disappearing off stage and running frantically into the theatre and back onto the stage before saying, “That’s how I got here; how about you?”
For an ending, both my partner and I found it slightly disappointing. Despite spending much of the play detailing how she was “sick of being sick” of her situation, it seemed that little was resolved. She was spreading her message of unhappiness through the performance of her story but the play would have benefitted from a stronger resolution.
However, I found the overall performance incredibly captivating and Sadia did not falter. The smaller theatre and the relatable topic made the whole performance more personal to me, and I will definitely be returning to The Bread & Roses for future productions.
I would encourage anyone who, like me, has had little experience with one-woman plays to go to Clapham and give this one a try. I can promise you it’s nothing like the one in Friends.
Tickets: breadandrosestheatre.co.uk
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