The title of Claudio Macor's
Savage surely refers to whatever sadist decided
a poky room over the Arts Theatre was fit for purpose as a performance space. In
my one previous visit to Above The Arts, the venue's notorious overheating problem seemed
to have been mostly resolved, but tonight it was clearly back with a vengeance.
Between the buckets of sweat, the acoustics that favour every other room in the
building apart from the one we're in, and sightlines that, I would estimate, leave
about four or five seats with an unimpeded view of the action (mine wasn't one of
them,) and the sooner that long-promised remodeling of the theatre comes along, the
better - especially if this unloved second space ends up getting remodeled right
out of existence. In circumstances like these, any positives the actual play itself
might have, if any, are pretty hard to spot.
