Review: Lowkey Dying, Omnibus – Everything Theatre

Review: Lowkey Dying, Omnibus

Louise (Heather O’Sullivan) is a dental receptionist and the premise for Lowkey Dying suggests she may need gone too far along with her monitoring apps and her life on-line. This sounds acquainted! Like her, I observe issues in my life: I’ve a spreadsheet for theatre visits, I log films and I take advantage of the Streaks app to regulate some bits and items.

O’Sullivan’s script is humorous and positively identifiable. There are quite a few good laughs all through and he or she has sturdy comedic chops. She neatly brings a full image of Louise to the fore, exhibiting us first what the character thinks of herself however then additionally cleverly shifting the narrative, as we start to listen to how her colleagues view her. Louise tells us that another person got here up with unflattering nicknames for her workmates, however later we discover out she is the one one that makes use of the nicknames and presumably got here up with them herself.

Billed as exploring ‘the internet, the self and the inevitable social media overdose’, Lowkey Dying then doesn’t actually discover the web or social media. It is principally centered on the self: Louise’s anxieties and obvious lack of self-awareness. There is a slight parallel with the apps in that Louise has her life categorised; issues match into little ticky bins and routines work for her, however this simply doesn’t match with how the play is billed. There is nothing improper with a play not being what an viewers expects, however to have the premise itself be so completely different from the promoting appears a little bit of an odd selection, and I don’t suppose it’s an intentional one. Part of the issue is that we hear little or no about Lowkey Dying’s marketed premise within the physique of the play. Apps that observe numerous features of our lives and the behaviours we expect are useful – ingesting water and so on, get a short point out early on, however then simply vanish from the narrative and develop into nearly irrelevant till they arrive strongly into focus on the finish. It doesn’t fairly dangle collectively.

O’Sullivan does, nevertheless, give a powerful and fascinating efficiency, which helps. She’s extraordinarily expressive, expert at bringing a spread of characters to life, and greater than retains the viewers’s curiosity all through. At instances, she makes use of it nearly as a passive however reactive participant, stopping and holding for response or elevating an eyebrow for response. This has some success, however as it’s primarily directed in direction of the entrance row, the impact is lessened for the remainder of the spectators. There is a transparent vitality between O’Sullivan and people instantly in entrance of her, however within the auditorium past the impression fades and this serves to then disconnect part of the viewers.

Additionally, there may be spectacular work on the tech aspect, underneath the course of Lauren O’Leary. Light and sound are completely timed to be a part of a scene or a motion change.

Lowkey Dying provides a lot to love, and maybe the largest situation with it’s merely how the play is marketed. Change that as much as higher mirror the work introduced and there’s a lot of promise for the long run after this brief run at Omnibus Theatre.

Written by: Heather O’Sullivan
Directed by: Lauren O’Leary
Produced by: Discoland

Lowkey Dying has accomplished its present run.