REVIEW | The Verge of Forever, The Other Palace
Finlay Mckillop and Scarlett Ayers in Verge of Forever. Photo: Holly Burton★ ★
Reviewer - Annie
*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review
What I love most about song cycles is their ability to be immensely complex whilst remaining rather ambiguous. They create a world of interpretation which is really interesting for an audience and creates a rather varied night at the theatre. When we were invited to the press night for Olly Novello’s ‘Verge of Forever’ at The Other Palace, I was keen to see what new experiences we would be open to.
Self-advertised as “The Drama School Audition Musical” I was intrigued by what direction the cycle would take us on - a heavy insight into the blood, sweat and tears students pour into their auditions or a more lighthearted joyous reflection of the beauty of Musical Theatre. Unfortunately, I felt that the show was not particularly sure what it was trying to convey, hosting an extremely varied range of song styles which struggled to create a harmonious storyline.
The song cycle centres around two teens; Leo and Marie, who meet and fall in love following their GCSE’s. They go on to have a loving relationship during their A Levels yet, after both deciding to audition for drama school, Leo quickly becomes green with envy at Marie’s seemingly easy, and successful auditions, which eventually leads to the breakdown of their relationship.
Although there is potential for an interesting basis for a show here, the songs seem to be quite confused and often unrelated to the storyline. One particularly confusing element was a number in which Leo tells the audience of his trials on dating apps, and having been catfished by a 70-year-old lady.
Despite being a show about Drama school, the perhaps more prevalent theme is that of the love story of the two leads - but even at that level, there is a limited amount of character exploration to enable the audience to sympathise with either lead.
There is such a range of songs on offer, but they lack the ability to enable the audience to engage with the characters, or empathise with them at any deeper level than surface. The result unfortunately is a very disconnected show, in which the characters do not fully delve into their potential - which sadly did not make a mark as much as I had hoped.
The lyrics at times felt quite limited and underworked in terms of their complexity. The narrative in the songs was positive at times but was let down by quite simplistic lyrics. The music in the show is dynamic, bold and full of great strength, displaying wonderful musicality, yet the overriding impression was that the show was very loud and left the cast having to belt the majority of the numbers. With such heightened emotions intended to be on display, it would’ve been interesting to see more contrast between loud and soft, light and dark within each character's arc or that of the plot.
Credit must be given to both Scarlett Ayers, and last-minute understudy Finlay Mckillop, who provide extremely strong performances. They both threw their all into the show and offered very confident portrayals. Ayers has a beautiful voice, which is incredibly strong for how early into her career she is - certainly a bright future is ahead. Mckillop is a natural born performer - offering an extremely comfortable showmanship, seamlessly flitting from serious to comedic - he was a joy to watch perform.
It is evident that Novello is ambitious and has worked hard on this show, but perhaps there is still work to be done to drive this show towards a more well-rounded and secure sense of what it is trying to be.
At The Other Palace until 20 August.
