The Booth

Thursday 03 August - By Ione Gildroy for The Student

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EUTC’s production of new comedy The Booth is an enjoyable and intriguing exploration of the world of radio plays, both the production itself and the behind the scenes drama, which leads the audience through a series of twists and turns.

The Booth starts off strong. As a play within a play, three of the actors are forced to portray two different characters, both an actor and then the character that the actor is playing. It sounds more complicated written down that it is in reality – it’s always relatively easy to identify when we are in the play within the play or in the behind the scenes. Accents are used to distinguish different roles, and these accents are all well done and identifiable.

Set design is minimal and doesn’t change throughout the show which works well and allows the actors and script to stand out. The lighting is also used well to highlight different characters or objects, and an ‘on air’ sign is used to show when the play has started. The script is projected on the back wall of the stage throughout which is a nice idea to add interest or to help those hard of hearing, however sometimes the script doesn’t keep up with the actors, or moves too fast, so could potentially be confusing. It also occasionally cut out, which unfortunately takes the audience out of the world of The Booth for a moment.

My favourite character was that of Sue, the foley artist. Josie Embleton creates her character using physical acting in place of few lines. The lines she does have are delivered well, but the props really allow her to shine.

My main complaint with The Booth is that the script sometimes doesn’t give the actor the chance to really deepen and understand their roles. At times it felt like the actors wanted to, and could, give more, but couldn’t due to the occasional limits of the script.

Tension built towards the end of the play, and I was expecting a climax of emotion and drama. I didn’t really feel The Booth delivered on this as it ended quite abruptly. There was a moment after it had finished where I was aware of some members of the audience looking at each other to check whether they should start clapping or not.

All in all, The Booth is fun, different and well worth a watch.