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The Uncontainable Nausea of Alec Baldwin review

This was my first time at The New Diorama Theatre for this production, an award winning venue. The New Diorama is at the cutting edge of British theatre. It has demonstrated its ability to spot and nurture rising talent: both For Black Boys... and Operation Mincemeat started their lives out at The New Diorama prior to their great acclaim. 

The Uncontainable Nausea of Alec Baldwin comes from theatre company TG Works, a migrant-led, experimental theatre company founded by Tommaso Giacomin and Manuela Pierri. The Uncontainable Nausea has played at The Venice Biennale, and as part of Voila! Festival, before working its way here to The New Diorama. 

The play opens with the main character, Alec Baldwin (not the same), in conversation with an AI chat bot. This juxtaposition presents a pensive, tense Alec, and a machine trying its best to relate. The result is a moving and surprisingly hilarious exchange, with the AI fumbling its way through normal conversation. Perhaps the best example of this is when Alec says that he "feels sick" the AI responds with a list of emergency numbers and medical helplines to call. 

What then follows is a series of surreal deviations, be it Buster Keaton-esque slapstick, or choreographed dance numbers - as Alec tries to describe and come to terms with with "an event"; a mistake he has clearly made. The slight difficultly here, is that lots of these scenes feel like a detour whilst the viewer is in the moment. Things only really make sense looking back on everything, as each consecutive scene gives context to the previous, like piecing together a puzzle. 

However, this is perhaps the effect intended. As an audience we are taken on this journey from the most abstract version of events to the most focused verbatim account, mirroring how one might confront trauma. In order to truly grapple with a dark past, your mind may bury it under a cloud of weirdness, or you may replay iteration after iteration of a distressing experience. The show also gives you a choice to peek into the darkness simmering beneath the fun of it all. Even the lyrics to the Pointer Sisters' "Neutron Dance" (the song played at arguably one of the silliest moments of the play) became something more existential for me. 

Stephanie Brucker is a standout cast member. When she first enters she steals the scene, making even the simple act of smoking a cigarette iconic. She manages to create these highly exaggerated motions, which are further amplified by live camera work.   

James Aldred, (who plays Alec) is brilliant. His delivery of his final monologue is some of the most sincere acting I have ever seen. It stands in such stark juxtaposition to much of the slapstick of the rest of the play and is incredibly moving. I love this idea that we get to see the same scene over and over again, going from a most surreal iteration, to the most stripped back, raw and real. It is a delicate balance trying to get the level of comedy right, in a way that enhances the more powerful and darker scenes rather than detract from them. This production seems to have got it spot on.

Tomasso Giacomin as writer and director has developed an incredibly exciting aesthetic and artistic language. The use of overlapping voices delivered into microphones, mimicking the relentless assault of news and media, is rather clever. It is quite rare that something comes along that feels fresh and different enough to sit up and take notice. I am looking forward to seeing what he and his company get up to next. ★★★★☆

Photograph by David Monteith-Hodge 

Thank you to The New Diorama Theatre for inviting me. Tickets were provided free of charge and I was given full control over the content of the review.






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