Reviewer : Megan Hyland
Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
If you see any piece of theatre this year, make sure it is Melissa Johns’ Snatched.
Hilarious, brutal, and genuine, Snatched is Johns’ compelling memoir that leaves no stone unturned. A masterful exploration of disability and sexuality, the piece is as confronting as it is moving; and with a majority female production team behind her, Johns’ debut is refreshing and vital. Theatre is supposed to make you feel something, and if the tearful standing ovation Johns received – at the performance I attended – is anything to go by, she certainly achieved that.
Following a phone hack that resulted in intimate photos of Corrie star Johns being publicly released in 2018, she became an advocate against body shaming – particularly the body shaming of disabled people. After devising Snatched with the help of director, Lily Levin, Johns is now speaking out against the scrutinization that her body has faced her whole life – the 2018 phone hack being the crescendo that followed years of discrimination and shame.
The way that Johns pulls apart her life for the audience and examines it in such gut-wrenching detail is nothing short of phenomenal. With witty sarcasm, she explores her relationship with her body across the years and how that has changed, from feeling like “such a special little girl” to hiding her disability from potential dates to avoid their discomfort. Imogen Halsey’s hauntingly beautiful voice permeates the scenes that span Johns’ life so far, taking us through the decades with hushed covers of the classics from each decade whose lyrics are reframed for the audience by Johns’ moving narrative.
The music, coupled with Johns’ flawless depiction of her evolution from girlhood to womanhood, perfectly translates to the audience where we are. But what cannot be underestimated is Snatched’s unmatched ability to convey truly powerful emotion. And this doesn’t just refer to the unspeakably awful moment that Johns finds out about the photo hack, but also to the way in which Snatched depicts love and relationships. When Johns describes her first love – with Halsey’s euphoric cover of Bryan Adams’ ‘Heaven’ playing in the background, surrounded by Katrin Padel’s soft blush lighting design, we feel the dizzying heights of Johns’ infatuation as though it is our own.
And that is what makes Snatched so truly magnificent. It is one thing to evoke sadness within an audience, but entirely another to elicit pure joy, and Johns manages to do both expertly. She allows us to feel her every emotion as though they are our own, and whether you have shared Johns’ experience or not, there is something that will hit home for everyone in Snatched.
Defiantly looking to the future, Snatched is a message of hope for anyone that has ever had their privacy invaded, their body scrutinised, or their value questioned. Each and every person has had a tumultuous relationship with their body, but Johns is saying “no more”. This is Johns taking full ownership of her body and her narrative, and we as an audience are fortunate enough to be taken along for the whole magnificent ride.
-Megan Hyland
You can catch Snatched at The Unity Theatre, Liverpool on 16 June 2022 and Bolton Octagon on 18 June 2022.