Theatre / Reviews
Review: Party Season, Bristol Old Vic – ‘Sharp comedy from Bristol’s best-loved devised theatre company’
One of Bristol’s finest theatrical exports, The Wardrobe Ensemble, returned yesterday evening to Bristol Old Vic with Party Season.
As the inaugural Made in Bristol troupe, the company has been paving the way for local theatre makers since its inception.
Party Season is a sharp comedy ostensibly parodying middle class niceties and the more preposterous rituals of parenthood. Overly organised parties and nightmarish group chats titled ‘elite mummies and daddies’ help create an atmosphere of pretence and competition, within which our bewildered protagonist Xander (Tom England) struggles to exist. England’s performance is the centrepiece of the show, and his growing exasperation is felt acutely as he is enveloped by a world he doesn’t want to be in.
The play follows Xander as he navigates a weekend of three children’s parties, in the absence of his wife Margot (Kerry Lovell).
Party one is hosted by the fatuous couple Celia (Jesse Meadows) and David (Ben Vardy), celebrating the birthday of their insufferably bratty son Aonghus (Jacade Simpson). As is often the case in Wardrobe Ensemble productions, Meadows’ comic acting is a particular highlight.
Whilst Xander is probably the technical protagonist of the play, it is the character of Entertainer (James Newton) who guides us through the narrative and is really the heart of the story.
Entertainer is an excellent character, dancing the thin line between comedy and tragedy. The protagonist and moral heart of the story intersect as we discover that Xander’s late father, whose early passing is suggested to be a so-called death of despair, was himself a children’s entertainer.
Newton’s tender performance is my favourite of the production. His portrayal of Xander’s Dad, the narrator, and the performer at the children’s parties is listed as one character in the show-notes: the ‘Entertainer’ becomes a conceptual figure existing across time.
Xander’s schoolfriend Bea (Fowzia Madar) hosts party two, and here, themes of social class begin to unfurl. Madar’s performance is excellent, as she confronts the man she remembers as Alex for disappearing from their working-class community, donning a beanie and (quite appropriately) changing his name to Xander.
The children’s friends are portrayed in ensemble. During the parties, Lovell compensates for the relatively small part of Margot with an incredibly funny ‘new parent’ role whose entrance recalls to mind the film The Ring.
Vardy plays Celia’s equally irritating husband, David, and has some wonderful comic moments in doing so. Simpson, when not playing Aonghus, is Bea’s childless brother Kane, recently back from travelling, and over-keen to discuss his so-called insights. It is in this role that Simpson especially shines.
The actual theatre of the show is predictably brilliant; Beth Duke’s sound design and its interaction with the elements of physical theatre are both confident and stylish.
Beneath the balloons, Party Season is an exploration of class, grief and identity, adroitly decorated with the theatrical furnishings we’ve come to expect from Bristol’s best-loved devised theatre company.
Tom England in Party Season
Party Season is at Bristol Old Vic on May 21-23 at 7.30pm with an additional 2.30pm matinee show on Saturday. Check bristololdvic.org.uk for tickets.
All photos: Paul Blakemore
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