Lavenderia Automatica
July 2008
The Lambeth Universal Performers are building quite a reputation for themselves six years after their conception. Entertaining audiences at Battersea Arts Centre and as far away as Jersey Arts Centre has become a familiar part of the LUP's Summer programme and the critics love them.
This year the performers took to the road with their latest show Lavenderia Automatica - an unusual tale of romance with a bit of everything in it, from music and online chat to gangster rap.
Gill Kay, journalist and theatre critic, wrote the following review for the 3 July 2008 edition of the Jersey Evening Post:
Love in a launderette
Always expect the unexpected. Isn’t that what they say? And last night’s Lavenderia Automatica at the Arts Centre was certainly not what I was expecting.
The story behind the play was almost irrelevant – it was the presentation, the novel ideas, the innovative imagery, the dance and the music as well as the performances that made the play a little something out of the ordinary.
It opened with an edgy documentary-style film narrated by actor Ricky Payne, which set the scene of the play – a launderette in the heart of Brixton. This urban tale featured Indelicio Dos Santos, the Spanish owner, and his wife Xanthe, along with their three daughters and a variety of characters all connected by the launderette. It’s essentially a beauty and the beast-type love story with a happy ending. But beneath this tale there were undercurrents of sadness, anguish, torment, rejection plus big helpings of comedy.
Several different threads ran through the play, and there were snippets of dramatic interludes that tied the story together in a snappy and fast paced way. Anyone who is a fan of Channel 4’s 3 Minute Wonder and can imagine an hour-long version would have appreciated this play. It moves from studious schoolgirl and on-line chatting to hoodies, gangster rapping and death-bed promises, all interspersed with bursts of music and dance that involve new ways of taking a story forward. In fact the only criticism is that there are almost too many ideas shoe-horned into the one production.
The most disturbing element of the play was the portrayal of X – the tormented man who is cursed. We see him on film being possessed, and then and on stage we see the curse personified by a female creature who tortures his every move in a sinuous and often balletic way. Only the love of a woman who is beautiful on the inside (who happens to be one of the launderette owner’s daughters) will free him.
At this point I feel obliged to mention the fact that the show was created and performed by disadvantaged students including those with learning difficulties or disabilities. I mention this only because the adverts point it out. But for me, two minutes into the performance it just wasn’t an issue – they were all actors doing their job, and doing it extremely well.
All I can say is, the next time the Lambeth Universal Performers pay a visit – try not to miss them.
Related news story - There is Nothin' Like a Dame! (2009)
Related news story - Clever Work with Children and Animals (2009)
Related news story - The Crucible (2008)
Related news story - A Slice of Harlem (2007)
Related news story - The Female Touch (2007)
