REVIEW: IMPACT, part of Voila Festival at Barons Court Theatre 15 - 17 November 2024

‘Engelhardt gives a convincing account, and her story is very informative’ ★★☆☆☆

Television as a medium covers topics in a very wide range of forms. We are accustomed to seeing everything from news to sport and documentaries to drama. And with the ever-increasing presence of social media, theatre’s audience can these days be stolen away because they are spoilt for choice. Not surprising then that new innovations have found their way into many modern productions. Okay, so we always had the drama the tragedy the comedy and the musical but imagination and technology have allowed the non-traditional minded proponents amongst us to innovate in new directions and with new mediums.

Sport seems a long way off and I dread the day when I am sitting in a theatre and someone onstage thinks it a novel idea to start whacking golf balls into the audience. Documentary though, is much more plausible. And that was very much the feeling I got when witnessing this performance. Don’t jump to conclusions and think this was not entertaining or dramatic. The subject matter, being so emotive was one hook and the twists and turns, as many as in the best who-done-it also kept the audience captivated.

Amy Engelhardt gave us a moving story of her personal involvement with the terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988. Her near obsession with the event, lead her to consider that many of the incidents that happened in her life were in some way connected to it. She gives a convincing account of this and her story is very informative; hence leading to my assessment that the whole thing was very much like a documentary.

There was also music, in the form of an unconventional trio of keyboards, cello and percussion. This did however work really well in performing Amy’s compositions. These were original, with the cello adding a eerie, folksy feel to the more modern ‘70’s musical’ keyboards and incredibly moving lyrics. There were also projections onto the back wall of the stage showing scenes and people connected to the events in her story. And lastly, a touch of a quirky kind of humour wherein our attention was brought to the weird consequences within the story by the ‘ding’ of one of a number of bells strategically positioned on the floor of the stage.

The story brought out the immense warmth created around the people involved with the tragedy through the transatlantic connections they made. Therapy, charity and empathy were what resulted.

Written & performed by Amy Engelhardt

Directed by Kira Simring