Credit: Helen Murray
Guest Reviewer: Elise Gallagher
Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” Penelope Skinner’s new play Meek is a narrative surrounded by notions of control, freedom, and faith.
Shvorne Marks plays the protagonist Irene, who by day works as a munitions worker, but at night dreams of being a singer/songwriter. The play opens with Irene alone and arrested for a song she wrote and performed in a local coffee shop, which is reported as offensive to the dystopian regime ruling the country, and Irene is put on trial for a capital crime.
We see fragments of Irene’s progress in captivity through snapshots of visits from her best friend Anna (played by Scarlett Brookes) and her legal aid Gudrun (Amanda Wright), who examines her story in order to present it at her trial.
Song Number One is the name of the song which has landed Irene in purgatory. She says the song was written about her love for a married man who ended their affair, not against the holy spirit which the anonymous reporter claimed.
However, with little surrounding context on offer and with the narrative magnifying this small social group’s history it’s quite easy to identify the subject of Irene’s song, and by extension her accuser.
The set design is minimal but effective, the characters encompassed within grey blocks with the only centre point being a bright neon crucifix. You can argue that Skinner has taken inspiration from works like The Crucible and The Handmaid’s Tale, but Meek lacks the vision to explore the situation further, instead trying to push the idea that this kind of regime could happen anywhere. The vague nature of the surroundings dilutes the impact the play could have.
But the performances given by the three actors far outweigh the cons discussed above. They perfectly illustrate the situation they find themselves in, a combination of hopeful and hysterical – the performers carried the play exceptionally.
The biggest disappointment of the performance – and this was out of the production’s hands – was the disrespect that came from surrounding audience members, which were mainly made up of large groups of teenagers – a school trip I imagine. Talking, laughing, and rustling sweet packets. Not only is it disrespectful to your fellow audience members who’ve paid to attend, but it’s wholly disrespectful to the cast and crew who have put so much effort into delivering a performance.
-Elise Gallagher
Meek is at Salford’s Lowry Theatre until the 22nd September.