REVIEW: Intruder / Intruz by Remi Rachuba at Network Theatre, The Vaults Festival 28 /29 January 2023

‘a refreshing presence on stage’ ★★ ½

Remi Rachuba’s INTRUDER / INTRUZ is a dark but somewhat humorous retelling of Remi’s experiences of being mugged in Glasgow. He goes from being unable to escape the memories of his attack, always feeling as if the perpetrators are lurking behind him, to finding forgiveness. What seems on the surface like a harrowing story is told alongside Glaswegian caricatures, impressions of whales, and a rap sequence. Remi takes his audience on a hectic journey across stories, characters, moods, and languages.

Some of the writing was extremely witty and had the audience with their full attention on Rachuba as they laughed at his play on words, accents, and languages. Lots of the writing, however, was often clumsy as it jumped across different places, characters, events, moods, and themes suddenly, making it difficult for the audience to follow what is happening. There were also moments that, although refreshingly bonkers, felt like they didn’t add anything to the overall story. These sometimes misplaced and drowned out the more tender moments when we were meant to be drawn into Remi’s trauma.

Charles Webber’s use of lights to take the audience from place to place was used effectively and guided the audience well. Rachuba’s constant changing of footwear as he literally stepped into the shoes of another character was a great addition and the constant use of the back wall of the Network Theatre to mimic Remi’s inability to back-away from his intruders was a lovely direction from Marcus Montgomery Roche. It was unclear, however, from the direction of the piece whether the audience was meant to laugh, pity, or feel uncomfortable. If the intention was to make us feel all these things and more then, as with the writing, the jumps between these moments should have been made smoother.

Rachuba gave an entertaining performance that was playful and theatrical. He is extremely energised and has a refreshing presence on stage that fringe spaces welcome so well. From such a frenzied yet committed one-man-show it is clear that Rachuba will be attending many fringe festivals to come. Although his jumps from serious to commercial to outlandish are clumsy, each different moment is hit with 100% intensity. All I ask for, when this show continues, and it definitely should as it’s shows like this that fringe festivals should make space for, is that the audience isn’t thrown into so many different things at once, allowing for the promising premise to come to the forefront of this piece.

Intruder / Intruz by Remi Rachuba at Network Theatre, The Vaults Festival 28 /29 January 2023

Reviewed by Amy Tickner

Amy is a theatre maker based in North London. She has directed for many companies at various pub theatres across London and her debut play ‘Jammy Dodgers’ had successful runs at Theatre N16, Etcetera Theatre, The Cockpit, and Edinburgh Fringe Festival.