Review: Outpatient (Park Theatre)

Review by Sam Waite

⭐️⭐️⭐️

As the lights go down in Park 90, the Park Theatre's studio space, pre-recorded dialogue tackles a conflict many a Fringe production must have met - it's going to be performed mostly in the mornings, despite being about death. So begins Outpatient, writer-performer Harriet Madeley’s exercise in coming terms with the inevitability of death through comedy.

Olive is a journalist chasing a bigger story than her usual Love Island coverage, and reckons she's found just the right angle when the idea of interviewing those soon to pass about their thoughts on what is soon to pass. Her flippancy on the matter is quickly wiped away by her own MRI results, which finds evidence of a long-dormant disease – one which the doctor says she may have had for as long as ten years, and which Google says usually kills in nine.

In both the writing and the performance, Madeley brings a clear voice to the character of Olive, who is as fragile as she is abrasive, and as avoidant as she is hyper-focused. There is a balance of comedy and tragedy which runs through the work, and Madeley is largely successful in selling both sides of Olive’s story – though admittedly, the moment where she truly breaks being wrapped up within a comedic scene seemed to confuse the audience, with it unclear if the handful of laughs were the intention. Her more quiet moments of surrender, and of refusal, are much more consistent and considerably more compelling, as well as mercifullymuch more commonplace.

The staging, whether a choice of Madeley’s or of director Madelaine Moore, muddies the emotional waters somewhat. There's a clarity to Madeley’s performance, a consistent her characterisation that doesn't always follow through to her plotting, something the stage itself seems to reflect. Seemingly key elements of Olive’s story – her career ambitions, her plans to run a marathon, commitment issues around her engagement – are called back to but allowed far too much time to be forgotten before she reminds us. The treadmill and exercise ball being alone on a barren stage might be perfect reflections of a story fixating chiefly on her fitness journey, but the show as written only implies through circumstance that Olive may have taken to such measures.

As Olive, Madeley’s performance is always engaging, and she manages to make the use of the treadmill feel seamless and natural. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to lose yourself in Olive’s story, with questions about the plot potentially having arisen from efforts to make the material less autobiographical. Disbelief must be suspended as a patient for the Gastroenterology department is left unchecked for quite some time while wandering about the palliative care ward, and when her doctor sees fit to give her no real information about her illness. Madeley herself is totally charming, but the avoidance of making Olive too distinctly her own avatar leaves the character as a bit of a blank slate in many ways – flawed but without clear likeable qualities, and existing within a life only vaguely mentioned.

An effective visual is created through the projection design of Megan Lucas, while her lighting design keeps the audience as part of the story – for better or worse – with blinding moments where Olive reenters the room to discuss events with us directly. Bella Kear’s sound design is primarily used to properly time and equalise the volumes of various prerecorded roles – while some funny lines come from these recordings, it did feel jarring to see (or hear) quite so much of these unseen characters in an intimate, one-person affair.

A story of finding the importance of life through proximity to death, Outpatient needn’t shoulder the impossible weight of breaking new ground, but in this production it fails to find much in the way of a unique voice. With a commanded and clearly talented leading lady, there is definitely potential here and I love a bit of gallows humour, but something about Outpatient just doesn’t quite connect. Still, many in attendance seemed far more wowed, and I cannot help but route for anyone willing to put their own most challenging moments on display for an audience – for that, Madeley has my acclaim.

Outpatient plays at the Park Theatre until June 7th

For tickets and information visit https://parktheatre.co.uk/event/outpatient/

Photos by Abi Mowbray