REVIEW: IN EVERGLADE STUDIO by Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller at The Hope Theatre until 4 May

‘A gig show with excellent music and a promising premise’ ★★★

It’s 1974 London. Three musicians and their manager are forced to work in their recording studio overnight to complete a country-rock album on time, whilst unknown to them toxic materials in the walls are driving them insane. This gig show has such a promising premise with a race against time to create tension, and live music to enjoy, but unfortunately it lacked credibility. 

The story started well, with two of the musicians and their manager working on the album, there is already a sense of the female singer, Skye (Emily Moment) being the big star with a big ego. When a black musician, Matilda (Hannah Omisore) turns up with her own music, feathers are ruffled. Matilda is nervous and lacking in confidence, whilst Skye is clearly racist. This doesn’t stop her from taking advantage of Matilda’s talent by plagiarising her music, changing the lyrics to suit herself.  The actors are wonderful singers and harmonize beautifully.  This is the outstanding feature of the show, all kudos to composer Aveev Issacson and lyricist Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller.

Sadly, other elements in the show were not so successful. The four didn’t really gel, with the effect that they all seemed to be acting in different plays. Some of them also seemed to display bizarre behaviour a little too soon, well before the voice over informing us of the problem of the materials in the walls.   The creepy accompanist (Aveev Issacson) seemed to be unhinged from the beginning. When the last scenes came featuring a knife and a gun, the show became farcical.   The only steadying character was the manager (Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller) but not enough to keep the show real.

This is such a pity, as a great opportunity for power play, between Skye and Matilda was missed. Although the power play is there, it isn’t steady enough to make any impact. Matilda, as the underdog, vacillates between being the victim and the victor, instead of having a steady growth of confidence which would have seemed appropriate given how successful she was becoming. Also problematic are those events which seem to suddenly transpire, without any previous intimations that they might happen (and therefore they jar). The whole episode with Skye forcing Matilda to take off her cardigan didn’t work, the stakes didn’t feel high enough for this to be a huge insult, which made the revenge which followed seem feeble.   

Finally, happily the show does hit the mark on period; the costumes and themes, racial tensions and the music scene, are of the 70s.  The show could easily settle in with a few minor adjustments.

IN EVERGLADE STUDIO

The Hope Theatre 16 April – 4 May

Box Office https://www.thehopetheatre.com/productions/in-everglade-studio/

Writer/lyricist

NATHANIEL BRIMMER-BELLER

NATHANIEL BRIMMER-BELLER

director

NATHANIEL BRIMMER-BELLER & PHOEBE ROWELL JOHN

composer

AVEEV ISSACSON

Cast

HANNAH OMISORE

NATHANIEL BRIMMER-BELLER

AVEEV ISAACSON

EMILY MOMENT

Producer

BLACK BAT

Reviewed by Heather Jeffery