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High anxiety: Collapse - Riverside Studios

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It’s a brave or maybe slightly provocative production to use Hammersmith Bridge on their artwork for a show called Collapse, which is about how everything collapses—poorly maintained bridges, relationships, and jobs. Nothing works. That’s probably too close to home for Hammersmith residents stuck with a magnificently listed and useless bridge on their front door. It gets even weirder when you realise the piece is staged in what looks like a meeting room with a bar. However, keeping things together in the most unlikely of circumstances is at the heart of Allison Moore's witty and engaging four-hander, which is currently having a limited engagement at Riverside Studios . The piece opens with Hannah (Emma Haines) about to get an injection from her husband (Keenan Heinzelmann). They’re struggling for a baby, and he’s struggling to get out of bed. But he managed to give her a shot of hormones before she started worrying about the rest of the day. She’s unsure she will keep her job with ...

Come inside and take a seat: Unfamiliar at home


Continuing the online theatrical experiences is Unfamiliar at Home. Streamed online using the all-too-familiar office video conferencing facilities of Zoom, it brings to life the trials of domestic life, being queer and the desire for a family. It's part performance, mixed media and office meeting. But it captures the ordinary and extraordinary lives of creative people living in improvised and unexpected domestic arrangements.

The piece introduces us to Victor and Yorgos. They want to have children. Or at least that's what they think. But past run-ins with parents, the economic uncertainty of being artists and the struggle of finding a surrogate are barriers. And there's plenty of unsolicited advice about what makes a family and how to become queer parents. I was surprised none of the advice was about making childproof their home, but maybe nobody had seen their overstuffed bookcases until now.


The story is autobiographical and at times intimate as it goes into the detail about their lives and the challenges of being artists during a pandemic that has hit freelancers hard. And for many of us, the scenes of shared confined spaces during lockdown feel all too familiar. 

Given Google's YouTube seems to be the preferred platform for streaming shows due to its size. But the service is a mess with a layout designed to serve non-stop clickbait and throw you down any number of rabbit holes of disinformation. But watching theatre by Zoom can also be unnerving. It's hard to escape into a world of storytelling sitting in the same kitchen spot watching a performance that you also spend the day working. 

Created and performed by Victor Essex and Yorgos Petrou, Unfamiliar At Home has completed its online meetings for now but check their website for updates.




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