REVIEW: OTHER THAN SUMMER by Keaton Jackson at Golden Goose Theatre 1 – 6 April 2024

‘Contemporary and challenging experimental two-hander’ ★★★

The black box theatre at the Golden Goose becomes an expansive and boundless space, strung with glowing lanterns, ripped pages from books and fragments of story, memory and experience. Perhaps it’s an external space. Or, a visual representation of an internal space such as the imagination. Perhaps it’s simply a void we must fill with our own meaning and interpretation. We don’t know where we are but it’s mysterious and alluring.

Other Than Summer is the first full length play of writer Keaton Jackson. Poetically directed by Anna Clart, the shifting scenes are effectively evoked through the atmospheric uses of sound and lighting design by Toby Ison. The fragmented form and kaleidoscopic presentation of this play give a respectful nod to Beckett and offers no easy answers. It demands more of the audience than any linear narrative with its straightforward catharsis or resolution.

This experimental two hander explores a single relationship across multiple time zones and characterisations. There is a sense of limbo and circularity that besets the relationship. Can Clara and Joyce, energetically performed by Madeleine Price and Sukey Willis, ever move forward? Will their relationship go anywhere? Will they always see things so differently? Does one person always love more?

Whether they are two companions in a 19thcentury novel, a couple of future AI bots or a pair of 1920s flappers, perennial inequalities resurface. One person always wants or needs more. Who’s behind the wheel and who’s the passenger in this journey? In one of the most vivid scenes, the two characters speak on a telephone: two tin cans connected by fairy lights in the dark but the conversation is at cross purposes. They simply cannot hear each other. “We’ve been stuck together, forever…Next time, it will be different.”

Other than Summer is arguably overloaded and carries too many ideas. Alongside the constantly shifting prisms of scene, there are injections of physical theatre, ancient myths and fables, poetry and a meta scene that involves reading from scripts. The play could benefit from more stripping back and focusing on key scenes while losing none of its essence. Less would be more. However, it offers a refreshing approach and reminds us why fringe theatre: vibrant, contemporary and challenging should be supported.

OTHER THAN SUMMER by Keaton Jackson

Golden Goose Theatre 1 – 6 April 2024

Box Office: https://www.goldengoosetheatre.co.uk/whatson/other-than-summer-

Creative Team:

Keaton Jackson (they/them) - Writer &

Producer

 Anna Clart (she/her) - Director

 Toby Ison (he/him) - Lighting Designer

 Cast:

Madeleine Price (she/her) - Clara

 Sukey Willis (they/them) – Joyce

Reviewed by Nilgin Yusuf