Current - Claire Dowie
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Current
Latest writing projects :-
Queen Lear for the fabulous
"Nina's Drag Queens" of Milan
and
Hard Working Families for the
wonderful Stage 2 Youth Theatre of Birmingham (they regularly produce Claire Dowie's solo theatre plays for companies of as many as 100)
Following performing 5 shows at the Face to Face Festival 2015
Adult Child/Dead Child
Why Is John Lennon Wearing a Skirt?
H to He (I'm turning into a man)
See Primark and Die!
and
Unboxed
Arsehammers! Random Subject
and
songs from Claire Dowie's novel
Creating Chaos ...
Claire performed Unboxed with Martin Stewart at Etcetera Theatre for the Camden Fringe in August
and both Why Is John Lennon Wearing a Skirt? and H to He (I'm turning into a man) at OtherPlace
in Brighton in September/October
for the Face to Face Festival ...
Recent productions continue -
Adult Child/Dead Child
by
Claire Dowie
Rating: ***** (review by James Waygood)
Dowie’s piece is lifted to intense new highs
by an inspired vision and an impeccable cast.
What’s most beguiling about Dowie’s writing is not only how free and natural the central character is, using unembellished and down-to-earth anecdotes and experiences, but the simple yet incredibly effective poetry that runs throughout the entire piece. It really emphasises and brings out the emotions and certain plot points that hook you right into the character’s story and plight without any effort at all. This poetic grasp of language really adds a simple yet lavish texture and rhythm to the text that makes the piece incredibly easy to listen to and engage with, but without adding any unnecessary theatre or pretence to someone who is very definitely a human character.
It takes us on a heartbreaking and absorbing journey of a child who has been let down at every step of the way into adulthood, resulting in a life on the edge of both reason and sanity. Laced with little garnishes of humour, it’s a deep, honest, and angry look at mental health, complete with gorgeously devastating insights into the fragility of human mentality. Nothing is exaggerated or over-dramatic, which is what makes it speak so directly to an audience and makes it so affecting. It taps so effortlessly into the uncomfortable delicacy of the human condition, and how easy it is to be destructively cruel to someone.
The treatment of having seven actors play moments of the same character adds not just a certain sense of variety, but also intrigue. We don’t get seven interpretations of a character, per se, but several different perspectives. The issues explored within the piece always stay the same throughout, but the angle and empathies are slightly different from performer to performer. It’s fascinating, whilst always ensuring the narrative and clarity of the piece is never muddied. This is heightened by the fact that the actors cast here constitute a wonderful cross-section of gender, age, and culture, meaning you really get kaleidoscopic points of view that are difficult not to connect on at least one level by drawing on the performers own charismas.
But what’s most extraordinary about the entire cast is how they feed off the audience. You get the feeling that some of the writing could come across more light and comic at various points throughout. But as the audience ended up having a bit more of a severe reaction to the show for this particular performance, each performer works with this rather than against, responding and complimenting the atmosphere augmenting it’s effect on people to an astonishing apex.
