★ ★ ★ ★ ★
On the same day that the Met were forced to drop convictions against attendees of the vigil for Sarah Everard, I was lucky enough to see the final performance of ‘The Beatles Were a Boyband’, a show about violence against women.
Unequivocal praise must be given to the three performers, Sally Cairns, Linzi Devers and Kirsten Hutchison. They embody the characters so completely, and the chemistry between the three of them is so convincing. Although you are obviously rooting for all three characters as individuals, you do also root for their friendships. Because of the strength of the chemistry, the dialogue between the characters, particularly when having regular conversations separate from those about feminism and violence against women, feel real.
The realism of the relationships in this piece are one of its greatest strengths. The other is the underlying tension that you don’t quite realise was there until the piece has ended. I can only speak for myself, but anytime any character left the stage, I was scared for them. I partly put this down to the aforementioned strength of the performances (You want the characters to be okay), but also because of clever use of time perception and the general excellence of the script. There are scenes where you don’t quite know when they’re set relative to the central narrative, which, in conjunction with some very clever writing, makes it impossible to predict the ending. You have reason to worry about every character, allowing the piece to get across the exact message it wants to.
Granted, when I was watching the piece, I almost felt disappointed about the overtness of a lot of the points that were being made about violence against women – they are spelled out very clearly. However, on later reflection, I realised that this is likely because I’d essentially ‘spoiled’ the show for myself by accident as I already knew a lot of the points that were being made – I was already desensitised to a certain extent (I’ve actually read the book, ‘Men Who Hate Women’ by Laura Bates, that is quoted in the programme). Subsequently, thinking back to how I felt when I first heard the stories and statistics mentioned in the piece, I can only imagine how someone hearing these for the first time in this really powerful format must have responded. I feel that this is such an effective way to communicate the importance of the subject matter of this play that feels will genuinely inspire people to action.
This is clearly an excellent show from every perspective. I hope it has a life after the Fringe as this is a piece of theatre that more people need to see.
Review by Ella Catherall
