Review: This Is Not About Me.(Soho Theatre)

Review by Jack Casson

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Much can be said about the current theatre landscape’s preoccupation with multimedia on stage, and This Is Not About Me continues this trend in its crafty, reflective exploration of a relationship. A non-linear memoir disguised as a two-handed rom-com, the show marks Hannah Caplan’s debut piece of writing, but does it manage to find what exactly this show is about? Despite the show's craftiness, which is innovative, charming and fun, there is a slight lack of reason.

The show opens with a darkened room, the piercing sound of a cellphone call breaking through the audience hubbub of Soho Theatre’s upstairs space. A single spotlight illuminates from the ceiling, channelled through a can, an image that only becomes relevant as the play develops. As Grace (Amaia Naima Aguinaga) rushes to answer, she becomes tentative when the voice of Eli (Francis Nunnery) speaks like a godly presence from above, asking Grace if she is okay. Thus begins what is essentially a recalling of a relationship in fragments, exploring what drove it to end. Caplan destroys the three-act structure as we jump through time to various periods of the pair's relationship, time-stamped most prominently through their intimate relations. As the play develops, we realise that what we are being told is instead manipulated by Grace’s own design as her work as an artist has led her to contort particular events, rendering Eli a puppet to her creation. What we begin to associate with truth instead becomes a one-sided, biased depiction of a relationship, questioning whether art itself provides the means to misrepresent a situation.

Amaia Nauma Aguilar is a highlight as Grace, providing a palpable and tenacious performance. She is seemingly self-assured in both her ideologies and experiences, yet when these are questioned by Eli, her visage falters and is performed with great nuance by Aguilar as she becomes more nervous in herself. The material she is given jumps between moments of mocking and comedy that become moments of realisation and reflection, as she is prompted by Eli to be more vulnerable, we see her sink into herself. Rich in expression and energised in her movement, Aguilar’s performance of her artistic creation becomes progressively erratic, and this is done so brilliantly.

Eli, on the other hand, is written as a puppet to Grace’s design. His material is counteractive to Grace’s becoming a naysayer to her version of reality. From this position, Francis Nunnery provides a much more nonchalant, unemotional performance, aiding in presenting Eli as an idea of a person rather than a fully-realised individual, an idea that Grace has created in order to put herself at the forefront of her narrative. Yet, as the play nears its close, this sense of Eli as ‘idea’ begins to crumble, Eli as a meta-theatrical presence, beginning to break through Grace’s design. This is where Nunnery could push his performance to be more expressive as his real self becomes somewhat indistinguishable from his puppet self, leading to some confusion as to what we are witnessing.

What stands out in this production is the direction and stage design. The intimate space of Soho Theatre allows the performers to interact with the world outside of the stage, utilising the small space to its full extent and treasuring every inch. The direction by Douglas Clarke-Wood is smart in how it manipulates the small space to challenge its limitations. There is much to be said about the use of levels in the show, the pair constantly battling over who holds power in the relationship, and this is made meta-theatrical to Nunnery’s own self-referential height as he towers over Grace. What this means for Grace is that she must find her own means to enforce her female power. This is primarily done through various multimedia forms, such as puppetry and mask work. In one scene, the couple are diminished to equal height as they play with puppets to explain what they dislike about each other and in another, the couple use paper mache masks to give a whimsical quality to their sexual relations, thus allowing Grace to further remove herself from reality.

We are invited before the show to be tactile with the environment by touching and exploring the set. The design by Caplan provides more than what meets the eye, as webbing tendrils drip from the walls, representing Grace’s mental interior, each carrying pages of her manuscript like flies trapped in a spider's web. Similarly, a bed in the centre of the stage is embroidered with writing as though Grace has found a means to eagerly portray her idea of reality and manipulate her environment. The white sheets that stretch into the audience prove a further sense of insanity, and we question, because of this, what is driving Grace’s narrative. The Lighting is similarly exciting, with neon blues depicting Grace’s shielding and bright reds highlighting the interrogation of Eli’s character. This culminates in a stark moment of complete whiteness as Grace is hit with Eli’s own version of events, and I found this moment to be one of the most poignant. Projection is also used to allow Grace to reflect on her past, whilst never truly having to interact with it. Instead, she plays with her history through the guise of phantom images. These projections provide such truths as interior thought and memory, expanding the show beyond the cast onstage. I do think the use of camera work isn’t necessarily during the puppet scenes as the intimate space means the moment is understood without enlargement.

This Is Not About Me. is charming in its design and unique in its structure, but unfortunately falters in its sense of anti-climax. The performances are very strong, and the creative choices are inspired. The comedy of Caplan's writing is remarkable, but it somewhat becomes nullified by repetition. Despite this, the play does a great job at producing a sense of an intrinsic narrative, and I am eager to see how the play develops over time.

This Is Not About Me plays at Soho Theatre until April 18th. Tickets from https://sohotheatre.com/events/this-is-not-about-me/