The Events grips you with the expertly woven contemporary telling of a massacre that mirrors the 2011 killings in Norway, when a young man open fired on a Youth Camp.
Often combative and vulnerable, Neve McIntosh brings to life the quickly dissolving character of Claire, the community choir leader and protagonist whose journey follows through the stages of grief after a gunman opened fire on her choir. Playing all of the other characters, whether real or imagined, is Clifford Samuel. The two backed by local choir East 4th Street Singers, bring together classic and contemporary.
In Greece, it was counted as a civic duty for the community to attend theatre to consider important issues. Amateur choirs joined the professional actors onstage and here is where our world’s meld. Creative minds Ramin Gray and David Greig capture the delicacy of the event with the tentativeness of a new ensemble at every show.
Neve’s abrasiveness, coupled against Clifford’s more often calming masculine energy clash, helping the audience realize that what we are experiencing is the inside of Claire’s mind as she interviews the killer’s parents, friends; fights with her partner, and then finally speaks the The Boy himself. She tackles this character with such strength and vulnerability, it’s easy to relate even as you find yourself repulsed by her crumbling moral. Clifford Samuel plays his characters, switching with such subtlety that it highlighted his more manic co-star, leaving the audience at times confused as to who is the real villain of this story.
We are left at the end, with unanswered questions, a normal occurrence for such a tragic event as this. If you’re looking for theatre that makes you think, go see The Events.
Review By: Aziza Seven
Photos By: Matthew Murphy
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