The Events, Brighton Dome

This review was originally published on The Public Reviews.

On stage; a set of empty benches, a stack of familiar looking plastic chairs, a stainless steel tea urn and in the corner, a battered upright piano. We know this room, this room is familiar to us. This is where our kids have birthday parties, we meet here for AA meetings or first aid training. It is this sense of recognition thatThe Events endeavours to engage us with. This community, this same collection of people, could have been yours. These tragic circumstances could have happened to you and the people you know; if it did, how would you cope with the aftermath?

The play began as an idea between writer David Greig and director Ramin Grey, a response specifically to the Breivik shootings in Norway, but also a reaction to similar events across the world. Their idea was to explore the motivations of the perpetrators, but more so the effect on individuals, seeking to discover how ordinary people deal with extraordinary circumstances. It was whilst researching the play in Norway that Greig and Grey, in search of light relief, came upon the idea of using a local choir as a central device. Each performance of the show incorporates a different local choir, who provide not just beautiful voices but another connection to the audience’s world.

The choir are asked to participate, but none to perform any part other than themselves, each reading the lines from scripts in their choir book or as directed into a microphone. The acting is left to Amanda Drew in the role of Claire, a vicar and choir leader and Clifford Samuel who flips deftly between multiple roles. Whilst all participants took a little while to relax when on stage (it was for all of them a first performance) each performed their part with skill and presence. The story telling, like the set and presence of the choir, is simple and sparse, but the message is deceptively rich. The choir sing out the message in the final song, when they turn to the audience, with the houselights up. If your looking for the answer, how you might cope with the aftermath of such an event, you will find the answer right here.