Review: Make Me Feel (Bush Theatre)

Review by Sam Waite

⭐️⭐️

The Bush Theatre’s Young Company, founded during the dawning of “unprecedented times” that was the pandemic, has provided ample opportunities for local artists to hone their craft and go on to great success. As well as providing a stepping stone to performances as the likes of London’s National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, alumni of the Bush Young Company have returned to the Bush to share their work – as was the case recently for both Coral Wylie and Azan Ahmed. So, you can imagine my anticipation, being a firm supporter of the Bush’s programming, when the opportunity came to see this 18-25 cohort’s final production.

Make Me Feel finds a varied group of young adults in varying stages of life, career, family-planning, and emotional growth, centred around the impending wedding of Ruby and Jamie. Following the group through the ups and downs of the two months leading up to the big day, we get to know bits and pieces about many of the guests, and see the strain that planning puts on the couple themselves. Will Jackson’s script moves between differing combinations of actors as they go through seemingly everything, from speed awareness courses to job terminations, from bitchy group chats to raucous nights out, even from potential affairs to mental health crises and thoughts of suicide.

This brings us to the chief issue running through the production – there’s simply too much going on. With a cast of 17 actors and only 105 minutes to give them all a moment to shine, more and more plot threads feel unnecessary, and their outcomes lose any real impact. Seemingly life-altering or friendship-ending spats are resolved off-stage, and powerful moments happen independently of the surrounding framework – a subplot about two sisters attending a protest with a highly-political friend raises interesting and relevant points, but quickly falls to the wayside once the tensions have reached their highest point, as is the case with a handful of other plotlines, including too-brief romances and too shallowly explored family dynamics.

But when Make Me Feel works, it really works. The stories given more space to breathe hinge on believably characters whose longstanding dynamics are immediately clear, and Jackson shows a real flair for comedic writing when the wedding party gather virtually to make arrangements. A big laugh comes in the form of the stag do group chat, following on from the intense and confrontational conversation between bridesmaids, in which one stag offers up, “Pub?” to a chorus of yups, grunts, and a full-throated “GO ONNNN!” In fact, so much of the stronger material revolves around the wedding and its planning that I found myself wishing the script were more tightly wrapped around the event.

The cast vary in stage presence and believability, though I suspect some may have been stronger if given more room to develop their characters. If anyone were to be put forward as a leading player, Joshua Aketse-Entsie and Dejuan Desiree would be the most likely candidates, as the husband and wife to be. Desiree brought a vibrancy and warmness to Ruby that allowed us to feel an instant connection with her, while Aketse-Entsie built up Jamie’s struggle with anxiety palpably throughout his scenes – admittedly, I couldn’t help but feel that Jamie was let off too easily for his endless failings in planning for his own wedding, but the actor himself did well at clarifying why he stumbled so often.

Katie Greenall’s direction keeps the piece in continuous motion, almost literally rotating the groups on and off of the stage as each scene ends. Greenall works well with the in-the-round space, ensuring no seating block is shortchanged and that nothing important will be missed, and keeps the performances level with one another so as to demonstrate the story threads’ equal importance to the characters. Admittedly the direction, too, falls victim to the sheer amount going on both onstage and off within this sometimes only loosely connected threads, but Greenall’s work makes strong strides towards unifying the worldbuilding.

Staged at a venue with a largely stellar track record, it cannot be denied that when Make Me Feel is at its best it is an absolute delight. That there is a strong piece of theatre about the differing experiences of early adulthood is undeniable, but some streamlining is much needed to unearth and extract the stronger scenes, and the more fully realised characters. The same theatre has proven the dramatic power behind protests and the need for anonymity within them, and the comedic and dramatic prospects raised by speed awareness courses, so perhaps what Will Jackson has created is a touch too meandering as a singular play, but may prove to be the start of a varied and inspiring catalogue of work.

Make Me Feel plays at the Bush Theatre until August 23^rd

For tickets and information visit https://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/event/make-me-feel/

Photos by Harry Elletson