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Details

All Alone archiveA man uses the anonymity of internet chat rooms to feed his perversions and sexual inadequacies; exposing the inner workings of a debauched mind that sits within the deepest horror of consciousness. A character that is so depraved we could never imagine anything worse. It is only when we, the audience, think we have seen the very essence of evil, can we be moved to imagine that things could be worse. This production contains scenes of a sexual nature with strong language therefore NOT suitable for children. <a href="http://www.theatre503.com/one_show.phy?showid=138">Website</a> All Alone website.

Cast/Performers

Toby Alexander, Andrew Barron, Charmaine Szecowka

Creatives/Company

Author: Gene David Kirk
Company: Post Script Theatre
Director(s): Jessica Beck, Gene David Kirk
Lighting: Phil Hewitt
Other: Gemskii (Stage Manager)

All Alone

All Alone (Play) production archive for QTIX code T0966340274. Details of all All Alone archived productions can be found under the QTIX code: S1731666349

Archive Listings

4 Aug 05
  to
28 Aug 05
The Fringe Office
Edinburgh
Performance Details => Venue archive
24 Jul 05Theatre503
Inner London, Greater London
Performance Details => Venue archive

Reviews

Reviews


UK Theatre Web: 19Aug05: Star RatingStar RatingStar RatingStar Rating
All Alone Postscript Theatre The Stage Best of the Fest Post Script tackles the controversy of paedophilia, child porn, internet chat-rooms and mental health head on. From the outset - where Toby Alexander and Andrew Barron, as the twin personalities of mentally scared Ian, are discovered in their underwear, one cleaning his teeth to the rhythm of the other masturbating over the cadaver of a young girl - you know that this is going to try to go all the way. They just about succeed, too. At first it seems that Alexander’s muscular, well-toned half of the psyche is innocent, while Barron’s flaccid-bodied onanist represents some buried, violent self. But as internet chat-rooms are accessed and another young girl is groomed and caught in their web, it turns out that both are equally sick and depraved. Alexander and Barron provide a well-timed pair of intertwining performances, while Jessica Beck’s edgy direction always ensures that it is disturbing, not titillating to watch. The question of whether these are fit subjects for entertainment is raised with a final, even more nauseating twist. Horror demands a certain level of empathy with the victim. But here, when the hunted suddenly becomes the hunter, and Charmaine Szecowka as the cadaver comes into her own, it is nothing but deeply disturbing. Thom Dibdin 18 August 2005


: 04Aug05: Star RatingStar RatingStar RatingStar Rating
Things are seldom what they seem – especially in the murky, obfuscational world of the internet chatroom. Here you, and your fellow chat chums, can be what you want, tell others what you like and probably never have to live with the consequences. But when the real world and the cyberworld collide the consequences can be horrifically tragic.

Gene David Kirk’s creepy atmospheric new play - part of the commitment to new writing that has recently won the theatre the 2004 Peter Brook Empty Space Award - delves inside the mind of one internet groomer, using two actors to present his real self and the self he portrays to an seemingly unsuspecting schoolgirl while for much of the time her lifeless feet protrude from behind a curtain in his down-at-heel room. Which of the sides we see is real and which an invention is never spelled out even at the startling end of the play.

The writing is robust, inventive and experimental, combining stream of consciousness with real time computer chat and subverted, perverted nursery rhymes. We are presented on the one hand with a sex-obsessed woman-hating loner given to furious masturbation and necrophilia, but also allowed a glimpse at the roots of his own journey to this place of depravity. The section in which he describes how his salivating anticipation of a roast Sunday dinner is instantly dissipated by the return home of his abusive father is wonderfully well drawn, and the gentle, cunning, relentless reeling in of his victim as he adopts the chartroom persona of a fellow pupil shows an impressive facility for dialogue in a play that actually contains none. I won’t give away the climax, suffice it to say it there’s a twist that’s surprising, shocking and thought provoking by turns, and fully justifies the adoption of the nursery rhyme device.

Toby Alexander and Andrew Barron, in their London stage debuts, play the two facets of the Man with great confidence and an admirable lack of physical embarrassment given the amount of self manipulation required, and the disciplined Greta Clough is the “victim”. This work in progress is directed with precision by Theatre 503 Associate Jessica Beck.

One or two sections of the computer chat need a second look and perhaps some pruning in order to fine tune the tempo of the piece, and for my money a greater age differential between the two representations of the Man would add a completely new level to the implications of the piece, but there is no doubt that this is an impressive and highly disturbing piece of work.

Paul Fowler

User Reviews

USER (19Aug05): All Alone Postscript Theatre The Stage Best of the Fest Post Script tackles the controversy of paedophilia, child porn, internet chat-rooms and mental health head on. From the outset - where Toby Alexander and Andrew Barron, as the twin personalities of mentally scared Ian, are discovered in their underwear, one cleaning his teeth to the rhythm of the other masturbating over the cadaver of a young girl - you know that this is going to try to go all the way. They just about succeed, too. At first it seems that Alexander’s muscular, well-toned half of the psyche is innocent, while Barron’s flaccid-bodied onanist represents some buried, violent self. But as internet chat-rooms are accessed and another young girl is groomed and caught in their web, it turns out that both are equally sick and depraved. Alexander and Barron provide a well-timed pair of intertwining performances, while Jessica Beck’s edgy direction always ensures that it is disturbing, not titillating to watch. The question of whether these are fit subjects for entertainment is raised with a final, even more nauseating twist. Horror demands a certain level of empathy with the victim. But here, when the hunted suddenly becomes the hunter, and Charmaine Szecowka as the cadaver comes into her own, it is nothing but deeply disturbing. Thom Dibdin 18 August 2005
USER (04Aug05): Things are seldom what they seem – especially in the murky, obfuscational world of the internet chatroom. Here you, and your fellow chat chums, can be what you want, tell others what you like and probably never have to live with the consequences. But when the real world and the cyberworld collide the consequences can be horrifically tragic.

Gene David Kirk’s creepy atmospheric new play - part of the commitment to new writing that has recently won the theatre the 2004 Peter Brook Empty Space Award - delves inside the mind of one internet groomer, using two actors to present his real self and the self he portrays to an seemingly unsuspecting schoolgirl while for much of the time her lifeless feet protrude from behind a curtain in his down-at-heel room. Which of the sides we see is real and which an invention is never spelled out even at the startling end of the play.

The writing is robust, inventive and experimental, combining stream of consciousness with real time computer chat and subverted, perverted nursery rhymes. We are presented on the one hand with a sex-obsessed woman-hating loner given to furious masturbation and necrophilia, but also allowed a glimpse at the roots of his own journey to this place of depravity. The section in which he describes how his salivating anticipation of a roast Sunday dinner is instantly dissipated by the return home of his abusive father is wonderfully well drawn, and the gentle, cunning, relentless reeling in of his victim as he adopts the chartroom persona of a fellow pupil shows an impressive facility for dialogue in a play that actually contains none. I won’t give away the climax, suffice it to say it there’s a twist that’s surprising, shocking and thought provoking by turns, and fully justifies the adoption of the nursery rhyme device.

Toby Alexander and Andrew Barron, in their London stage debuts, play the two facets of the Man with great confidence and an admirable lack of physical embarrassment given the amount of self manipulation required, and the disciplined Greta Clough is the “victim”. This work in progress is directed with precision by Theatre 503 Associate Jessica Beck.

One or two sections of the computer chat need a second look and perhaps some pruning in order to fine tune the tempo of the piece, and for my money a greater age differential between the two representations of the Man would add a completely new level to the implications of the piece, but there is no doubt that this is an impressive and highly disturbing piece of work.

Paul Fowler

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