“The Armour” – a play by Ben Ellis and produced by Defibrillator

The Armour – a play by Ben Ellis, produced by Defibrillator
www.defibrillatortheatre.com

Until 4th April 2015

Theatre becomes an even more intimate experience when performed in small spaces and, therefore by default, with a limited, but privileged, audience.The Langham Hotel plays host again to Defibrillator, a rapidly emerging theatre company that specialises in site specific productions, with The Armour a new play by Ben Ellis. During the course of 90 minutes the audience is led to three deeply contrasting hotel rooms; a different one for each act of this work which depicts interlinking stories and tells the history of The Langham Hotel spanning 150 years.

On the surface, the characters in each of the three pieces appear so different, even contradictory, (what does a Brittany Spears style diva have in common with Napoleon III). But it is the over-riding themes of need and management of that need that dominate Ellis’s play and serve to make it meaningful. In each of the three acts one of the characters in the character pairings is grappling with a major issue: pop star trying to make a come back; successful business man haunted by his brother’s death in the Vietnam War; snd finally Napoleon III enduring defeat and exile in London. A military style coat is present in each act and seems to represent the tormented character’s “armour” to protect them through their relative crises. The linking of the stories is further beautifully done with each snapshot taking place in the Langham’s diverse history; including the time when the hotel was taken over by the BBC which is the setting for the second story.

The whole ensemble is very well acted with standout performances from Simon Darwen and Siubhan Harrison as the sultry,but troubled, couple in the BBC sequence. This middle story also brought to mind last year’s exciting production form Defibrillator of Tennessee Williams’s Hotel Plays (also staged in The Langham) where again the middle play, Green Eyes, echoed lust and war.

Congratulations to Defibrillator who, once again, have challenged traditional theatre with a provocative production and cleverly linked it to the historical and opulent setting of the Langham Hotel.