Fringe review: Eva Seymour As ‘The Understudy’
A dark and surreal portrayal of an understudy in the throes of madness. ★★★★
Eva Seymour tells us she is starting to think “the universe is totally indifferent” to her. Yet after this 45-minute solo show, the audience will be left feeling anything but.
This surreal and hilarious production focuses on the life of an Australian theatre company’s understudy. The narrative displays Seymour’s dissatisfaction with her current gig and her fracturing personal and work relationships, all wrapped in echoes of her unaddressed ambitions. By changing her voice and posture, Seymour performs the roles of the understudy’s surrounding network of companions. Her instinctive ability to shift between personas adds to a sense that the understudy’s identity has been stripped to nothing more than her desire to perform.
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Thanks to The Warehouse Theatre’s small size, it’s so easy to feel trapped inside the understudy’s spiralling mind. The only break from Seymour’s lonely presence is the occasional projection of her confused face behind her, as if hoping to finally film her “big break” taping. Her dependency on her career is visceral and uncomfortable, yet it is also familiar, as if it’s part of our own lives to also understudy our own unattainable version of ourselves. Haunting and very funny, The Understudy reflects a gleeful acceptance of inferiority rarely seen anywhere else.
Eva Seymour As ‘The Understudy’ is playing at The Warehouse Theatre from February 20 – March 1
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