ECHO (Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen)

 

When: 19th July 2024 

Where: The Royal Court Theatre, London

Writer: Nassim Soleimanpour

Director: Omar Elerian

This production was unlike anything I have seen before. It is an experience not just for the audience but for the actors that take to the stage each night. 

Soleimanpour's play is performed as a cold-read, unrehearsed with a different actor taking on the role each night, unaware of what is going to be asked of them. On our night Rebecca Lucy Taylor took on the role of the actor. Taylor is relatively new to acting and whilst I think many audience members will choose to see actors such as Fiona Shaw or Adrian Lester who are trained or have years of experience, I personally think Taylor's lack of training made the production even more raw and moving. Without this training Taylor fully allows herself to take the soul of the story onboard reacting genuinely and in real time, not trying in any way to perform. As an audience it felt as if we were going on the journey with her, I expected it to feel as though the audience were watching waiting for the performer to fail to provide entertainment, but it didn't at all. The theatre was very relaxed giving the atmosphere that we were almost in it together, as I too had not seen the production before. 

"ECHO asks us to confront what it feels like to be an immigrant in time, as much as in space" - this is the description on the Royal Courts website. I've seen multiple plays that have advertised themselves as an exploration of time and space, but this more than any other really made me think about it. Many plays play with the form of a play to inform the themes of the story, in this it feels as though Soleimanpour is playing with the form of playwriting itself. By testing the boundaries of playwriting, questioning what it means to be a writer, to hold onto and share stories ECHO's themes are represented in the form of the writing and the methods of storytelling rather than just the story. In a similar way he also plays with the position of the actor, what is the job of an actor, how much do you need to put in or just become a body used to tell a story. Soleimanpour uses his actor as a tool, a puppet to bring himself and his story into the space, it doesn't matter who they are man, woman, non-binary, gay, straight, black, white, they are a body willing to take on a story. 

The play shares with us the story of Nassim Soleimanpour, his own personal story. At first he tells it himself, seemingly calling live into the auditorium from his study and having a chat with the performer. Then the story slowly detaches itself from him moving into the auditorium and taking its place within the body of the performer. There is a moment in which the performer states their own name before being told to state Soleimanpours name, in this moment their body takes on his story. I can imagine a trained performer standing up straight in this moment and trying to take on the character of Nassim Soleimanpour, Taylor did not, instead it took her some time for the character and it's story to settle. This was beautiful to watch, the character slowly developed within her, leading to a highly moving moment in which she was brought to tears by the experience of inhabiting somebody else's story. It is remarkable how Soleimanpour manages to create this feeling of separation from your own story, and the whispers, the echo of what was and what will be. 

Much of the performance relies on technology, from the screens which show Nassim Soleimanpour to the earpieces used to provide Rebecca Lucy Taylor with her lines. The way the lines were provided through an in ear was reminiscent of Recorded Delivery a verbatim theatre technique in which the performers hear recordings of real people in order to perform them as accurately as possible. Whilst recorded delivery is a rehearsed technique and we cannot be sure exactly what Taylor heard through the ear piece, in the context of the piece and her embodiment of Nassim Soleimanpours story there is something verbatim-esque about the performance and the use of this technique emphasises this. The screens were also really interesting, some parts must have been live there was no way for him to respond so accurately to her answers during conversation, but then there were seamless cuts as he took the camera through a door and it transported him to a new place. We never feel sure on whether he is actually calling live despite there being so many clues that it must have been, making us question this is yet another way Soleimanpour plays with the themes of space and time. Unlike many other plays that use such an abundance of screens which could be performed in a cinema, this felt like an experience, something that could only be done in theatre. It was a brilliant use of technology that felt deceivingly simple. 

From the way it has made me think about not only its themes but the literal form of theatre and plays, this was a influential experience that I will be thinking about for a while. If you can catch it before it goes at the end of the week do, it's a fascinating experience.