Written and performed
by Laura Jackson
Aspiring Musical
Theatre Company production
The Street Theatre,
March 13-15, 2015
Review by Len Power
13 March 2015
For many of us we’ve now had about twenty years of internet
experience. The changes it has made to
our daily lives have been extraordinary through the wealth of information
instantly available when we want it, on-line purchasing and the ease of
communication with friends and family through email, Skype and social
networking programs like Facebook. But
there’s a darker side to social networking which is chillingly explored in
Laura Jackson’s one woman play, ‘Handle It’.
The play details the experience of a young woman at
university when compromising pictures of her appear on Facebook. We also see the impact on other people as
judgements are made and actions are taken.
It’s confronting and thought-provoking and it’s also good theatre.
Writer and performer, Laura Jackson, has produced a strong
script with some good characters and excellent links between scenes with computer
projections that progress the story. She
also performs all seven characters in the show, six of whom are women and one
is male. It was confusing and a bit of a
stretch to accept her at the start of the play as a rather loathsome young man
and the character of the Pro Internet Sexologist, while amusing, had minimal
relevance to the plot. All other
characters were finely written and played extremely well.
Director, Janys Hayes, has staged the show simply on a bare
stage with minimal props and furniture.
Each character has their own acting space which gives good visual variation
as the play progresses. The computer
images have been well-designed to clearly demonstrate how easily you can lose
control of a situation when using programs like Facebook. Good lighting and sound complements the
setting and action.
Anyone assuming they’ll just see a biased, strongly feminist
view in this work will be surprised to find that some of the female characters
are unsympathetic and unhelpful, making judgments that are hurtful and ignorant
as well as just plain dangerous. What
appears to be a straight forward case of abuse using Facebook turns into an
ever-deepening mystery that is quite absorbing.
It raises some pretty uncomfortable issues about human nature as well as
about a technology moving too fast for most of us to keep up with.
Originally broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Dress Circle’ showbiz program
with Bill Stephens on Sunday 22 March 2015 from 5pm.
