Review: Ohio, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘A transcendent experience’

Autumn has come to Bristol all of a sudden, and happily, so has Ohio at Bristol Old Vic.

Written by husband-and-wife musical duo The Bengsons, and produced by piece by piece and Francesca Moody Productions (Fleabag; Baby Reindeer), it comes fresh from rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe, where it was praised for its accessibility and invention.

It’s another drizzly evening, and we settle into a packed room at the compact and modern Weston Studio, the show’s home for the next two weeks. The stage setup is simple: before us are two mics and a table with a laptop and a loop station on it, behind which is a screen with captioning.

The couple come onstage and Abigail immediately gets things started, creating a song with the help of her voice and the loop machine, and getting the audience to clap and sing along too. She’s charismatic and vivacious, with a gorgeously soaring and folksy voice.

Shaun steps in with his own narrative, telling us of his religious childhood in which he was largely mute, through a mixture of speech and music. He has a degenerative hearing illness – as does his father and various members of his family – and struggles with tinnitus, exacerbated by stress and tiredness. He has a more understated stage presence than Abigail, but his voice is excellent, accompanied by his beautiful guitar playing.

The mixture of speech and singing in Ohio could come across as somewhat earnest, but it’s undercut well with low-key jokes and good timing. Upon telling us of his illness, Shaun asks rhetorically “Do I lie awake most nights filled with sorrow and dread?… Yes”.

For me, what elevates this show to another level are the beautifully profound and poetic lyrics of the songs. On Shaun’s falling in love with music, he recounts “I’d stumble home, drunk on sound”, while Abigail vividly describes her fears about giving birth: “there were a line of fathers just behind my shoulders”. There are countless other examples, and far too many to write down.

The audience are often invited, but not pressured, to be a part of the songs, and it feels like a genuine and gently communal experience. The ones covering Shaun’s transition into atheism, the biology of hearing loss, and the difficulties of Abigail’s delivery are especially powerful, and enhanced by low-key but powerful lighting (Bethany Gupwell) and staging (Cate McCrae).

The use of visual effects on the captioning, combined with sound created by Shaun to convey his current level of hearing and tinnitus is both inventive and moving, especially compared with a recreation of his father’s more degenerated hearing and final sermon.

I left with a lot to reflect on, both in terms of all the themes, and how the show was woven together, with beautiful and smart direction from Caitlin Sullivan. The transcendence of Ohio was a break from the darkening evening outside. It wasn’t fully sold out last night, but it deserves to be.

Ohio (age recommendation 12+) is at The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic on September 2-13; times vary. Tickets are available at www.bristololdvic.org.uk.

All photos: Mihaela Bodlovic

Read next:

• The Weston Studio welcomes hit play inspired by true story of bestselling cookery author Atoosa Sepehr
• Review: The Chaos that Has Been and Will No Doubt Return, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘A masterclass in emotion, pace and pure heartstring-pulling drama’
• Review: Deposit/Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘A cracking evening of theatre’