Review: Hell is Other People at The Blue Room Theatre

Hell is Other People at The Blue Room Theatre
Tuesday, May 9, 2023

8/10

Perth company Monkey Brain present Hell is Other People, a bold, confident, and striking piece of physical theatre, and a non-verbal reimagining of John Paul Sartre’s existentialist play No Exit.

The players entered the stage to various murder ballads. The Worker (Nathan Di Giovanni) disinfected the chairs, side tables, and even the fake plastic plant, and set each piece of furniture and every wall sign slightly askew. Sam (Tim Green) adjusted the wall signs to square again, took an age to select a seat, and giggled uncontrollably over nothing of substance.

The second shade, Marty (Lucy Wong), strode purposefully into the room, easily accepted the situation as it appeared, and without hesitation selected a chair and sat down. Gia (Kimberley Parkin), the third character, then arrived to upend the seating arrangements all over again.

The Worker provided three red tickets, and the waiting began.

The fluorescent lights started to flicker. The customer service buzzer did not work at all.  Water dripped onto the carpet, and a metal bucket was placed under the leak, which only made the noise louder. While nothing happened, the three characters studiously tried to ignore each other, and dozed, only to startle themselves awake again.

There was a sense of an inordinate amount of time passing, along with the frustration and boredom of being stuck in the same room, with the same people, with no escape.

Sam took a drink from the water cooler, vomited blood over the wall, and the piece changed gears completely. Through clever use of both lighting and sound, each character was hurtled into their own internal monologue, their own torment, their own deaths repeated, in this never-ending limbo.

Although the cast did not speak, at various points they sighed, laughed, clapped, and clicked their tongues. There were even words as song lyrics, lip synched primarily in transitions. With blood on the walls, and more colourful lighting to counterpoint the too bright, unflattering fluorescents, these scenes suggested David Lynch, particularly Blue Velvet or Mulholland Drive.

The third act accelerated the descent towards the baser yearnings of the unconscious id, while at the same time ramped up the absurdity of the situation, and occurred while a literal demon laughed in the corner.

Hell is Other People at its core is a study of the human condition, from the absolute heartfelt to the most surreal. From the smallest grievances to the greatest passions, both positive and negative, all humanity’s raging emotions were up on stage at some point.

Hell is Other People was a delightful cross between the philosophical musings of The Good Place or Waiting for Godot, and the slapstick physicality of Chaplin or the Marx Brothers.

PAUL MEEK