And The Rest Of Me Floats ☆☆☆
Bush Theatre
The Bush Theatre is a small theatre with a huge reputation for new writing and, most notably for an LGBT audience, it is where the seminal play ‘Beautiful Thing’ by Jonathan Harvey had its world premiere back in 1993.
‘And The Rest Of Me Floats’ is a complex devised piece, about the “messiness of gender” and we are told that there are no characters as such. Performers tell their own stories, wear their own clothes and speak in their own accents.
The play’s timeline is not linear but rather it has, as director Ben Buratta calls it, a “swerving realism” where the author-performers are in control of how their stories are presented.
The result is a patchwork of dramatic moments, short monologues, and rhetorical questions, the sum of which reveal a fascinating and authentic symphony of gender expressions.
As a member of the audience, the effect is pleasant, engaging and intriguing yet there is a risk of it feeling a bit thin and inconsequential. What is striking is the demographic of the audience. It is overwhelmingly young (70% under 30 years old) and diverse not just in terms of race but there are wheelchair users and those for whom gender norms are clearly something they wish to have fun with.
The show ends with the whole cast singing along to MUNA’s ‘I know a place’ and its abundantly clear the piece has connected powerfully and emotionally with this audience They don’t need to be asked twice when invited to join in and leap up onto the stage for the final celebratory dance and curtain call. For this audience, tonight’s show has been of great consequence.
https://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/ until 16th March 2019
REVIEW: JONNY WARD 