Fringe Theatre

My strategy for fringe theatre here in London was to ride Michele and Candace's coattails to a show that they did the research for and thought that they would like.  It worked to absolute perfection, as the show we saw was one of the better shows that we have seen in all of our trip here, called Violence and Son.  I did not know what to expect at all, and then when we walked into the theatre, I was so intrigued.  We were sitting in your classic white trash lawn furniture!  The stage was "in the round," meaning that the audience surrounded the stage on all sides.  It would shock me if I was told that the theatre could hold more than 50 people too.  Everything that I had learned and perceived about theatre up to this point with the larger shows that we have seen was challenged before the actors even entered the room. 

When the show started, I was so confused because I have never watched Doctor Who before.  All of the transition points in the show were somewhat inside of the main character, Liam's, head.  They allowed us to see his imagination and his innocence, which at the end of the show came to a fascinating, symbolic conclusion.  While inside the character's head in a transition point where he was offstage, upstairs in bed with Jen (it is implied they had sex), we see hundreds of small action figures and toys fall from the ceiling and litter the entire room.  This was symbolic of his innocence and childhood crashing to the ground, and it really showed the audience that all of the transition points in the show leading up to that point were symbolic of his mental state throughout the play. 

The action with the other characters as well was wonderful.  The father, nicknamed Violence (hence, the title of the show), was an alcoholic who abused his Liam, his son.  Violence's girlfriend, Suze, was a cringe-worthy character, from her entrance on stage after an off-stage sexual orgasm, to her blatant attempt to cover up the violence of Violence towards his son.  The show was a wonderful production that tackled issues such as domestic abuse, single parenting, alcoholism, and blurred lines.  I left the show shaken a bit and in deep thought about some of the situations were presented.  I would recommend this show to anyone old enough to understand these difficult themes and hear some very crude language.