Avoidable Climbing @ Citizens Theatre
The latest project from writer/director Drew Taylor, Avoidable Climbing, was written as a direct response to the impending sense of extremist doom-and-gloomery that's threatening to envelop world politics. Taylor apparently conceived the idea when bemoaning the lack of action from a beleaguered left, so he decided to do his bit by writing an awareness-raising, rabble-rousing theatre production.
And what a densely-written, expertly-acted piece of theatre it is. Taylor traces a familiar pattern of social unrest leading into political totalitarianism through the use of five breakfast-table vignettes, exploring the reactions of everyday people from times of political significance and underlining the similitude of humans in every context. The repetition of these scenes is used to strong effect, with just enough tweaking between them to keep things engaging.
Interspersed around them are a collection of songs, poems and discussions which highlight the danger of allowing “a charismatic leader” to take the reins of a nation when the chips are down. Though the message of the play is a powerful one, Taylor never takes himself too seriously and includes such gems as a YouTube tutorial on how to seize control of a disgruntled populace. At times, the play seems to be in danger of trivialising life-and-death situations for comic effect, but always rescues itself by drawing attention back to the issues at hand.
The performers, David Rankine and Isobel McArthur, bring just the right amount of energy, cheer and pathos to their roles, slipping effortlessly from satirical caricatures to stony-faced harbingers of bad news. Both have an excellent set of pipes on them – especially McArthur – and the whole production is as slick as Rankine’s coiffeur, with the pair’s professionalism particularly noticeable during a five-minute miming scene as they mimic the voices and opinions of different politicians, commentators and members of the public.
As the show winds down, Taylor openly accepts that he holds no solutions to the complex problems facing the world right now. In doing so, the work neatly sidesteps the pitfall of overt preachiness and finishes on a charming, if a little rudderless, note of hope. With a script as tight and intelligent and a cast as committed to its cause as this, Avoidable Climbing deserves another turn under the spotlight. Let’s hope it – and the issues it seeks to address – get the attention they all so obviously merit.
Part of Take Me Somewhere festival