JADAR

★★★★☆

A scratch night produced by Young Identity, a Manchester-based literature and performance arts charity.

6 actors directed by Courtney “CourtsWrites” Hayles explore ‘Voice’ through the form of monologues in the setting of writing, and finishing finally, an essay. Hosted in Ascension Church, Hulme, the set is a big table littered with lamps, plants, snacks, and water bottles. The overarching atmosphere of finishing an essay is a mixture of inquisitive, then tense, with music interludes and recorded voice-overs enveloping the six actors.

The piece, with dramaturgy by Christopher Brown, began forming in September 2023, and it is impressive for a scratch piece to be developed by February. The amount of work and words to remember is an incredible feat. Phones, strawberries, inner dialogues are all props and prompts the actors use. It felt like the play was a free-write, in the sense that I found myself reacting and responding, in my head, to the monologues.

These 6 actors each have their own monologues, speaking about voices, what makes them, what does not make them, their agency … potentially everything ever said about voice is said here.

The monologues and the actors orbit each other, never crashing into each other but keeping each other on course and with some sentences and phrases crossing to each other.

Some of the monologues are more based in a narrative story, such as an experience of an illness combined with the idea of voice; some with the ideas of spirituality and a voice; and some with fear and the implication of voice on that.

There were multiple strands all intricately interlinked. I felt like the process of editing was verbalised really clearly in some of the monologues, making this a sort of self-reflective, meta play. A sense of the inner voice, dialogue was slowly coming to the outside the more the audience, and myself, familiarised ourselves with the play. The essay is finished, the set is cleared up and the audience can breathe.

This 50-minute-long play is intriguing in that sense. The actors make eye contact, hand out paper, and shout to the audience. There’s a real warmth in the room, as someone knows someone, whether in the audience or in the play, and that warmth and familiarity gives the play a beautiful edge.

It would be interesting to see whether the chemistry the actors have with the audience can be replicated with an audience made up of strangers.

Knowing about Young Identity made me more feel familiar with the experimentation of this piece. Experimental pieces usually litter instructions on how they want the audience to navigate a piece, and this instruction, whether part of a piece of paper before the play or part of the monologues of the play, would be an interesting incorporation for future piece.

Head to Young Identity’s website to see what else they have on – and for updates on Voice. Sealed. Shut.