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A Man For All Seasons: Seagull True Story - Marylebone Theatre

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It's not often that you see a play that tells you not so much a story but gives you a sense of how it feels to be in a situation, how it feels to be silenced, how it feels to be marginalised, how the dead hand of consensus stifles your creativity. However, in Seagull True Story, created and directed by Alexander Molochnikov and based on his own experiences fleeing Russia and trying to establish himself in New York, we have a chance to look beyond the headlines and understand how the war in Ukraine impacted a a group of ordinary creatives in Russia. And how the gradual smothering of freedom and freedom of expression becomes impossible to resist, except for the brave or the suicidal. Against the backdrop of Chekhov's The Seagull, which explores love and other forms of disappointment, it presents a gripping and enthralling depiction of freedom of expression in the face of adversity. After playing earlier this year in New York, it plays a limited run at the Marylebone Theatre . Fro...

Let's talk about stuff: Clickbait @theatre503


Clickbait is a comic new play about society’s attitude to porn and the women who make it for themselves. But it is hard to know exactly what to make of it.

There is enough material for several plays here; attitudes to pornography, how to set up a sex empire, concepts of consensual sex. They are all explored, but all too briefly to make much sense.

The play follows Nicola (played by Georgia Groome) who, threatened with the release of an amateur sex video, makes a snap decision to post it online herself.



But soon she is fielding unrelenting media interest and setting up her own sex empire with her two sisters as if it were as easy as setting up a theatre blog.

It all feels a little superficial. The youngest teenage sister (played by the amusing Alice Hewkin) also gets the raw deal in having to explain vast chunks of social media-speak to the audience.

The silliness builds as Nicola becomes a powerful porn magnate who wears polyester pyjamas and bunny slippers. It only redeems itself in the final moments when it grounds it back to origins of the revenge porn.

It is a pity as there is an interesting story among it all. There are some interesting ideas about responding to revenge porn, social media trolls (depicted by the actors with masks) and what it is to be sexually empowered. But none of them are considered long enough to support the show.

And while the title is catchy, it is a little confusing. Clickbait is those links to stories such as "how to retire at 55" or "what you should do for thinning hair". It isn't really about sex or revenge porn. But then again, I wasn't sure the play was either...

Clickbait by Milly Thomas runs at Theatre503 until 13 February.

⭐︎⭐︎

Photos: Production images by Oliver King

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