Under The Iron Clock

Soup Productions are a group well known for performing brand new plays, something which they have brought to audiences again with Under The Iron Clock. The play, written and directed by Joshua Gosney (in association with Farine Theatre), is an adaptation of the 1912 German Expressionist play ‘From Morn to Midnight’ by Georg Kaiser. It follows a bank clerk who is trapped in a mundane life and is trying to escape, and also brought in influences from the 1980’s such as the prevention of queer representation, economic struggles and extreme unemployment, along with some well known 80’s tunes.

Whilst I found the plot itself quite hard to follow, the cast did a great job with their characterisation and physicality to try and keep the audience up to speed. The production took place in St Thomas’ Church Hall which was a lovely space for allowing the actors to utilise both the stage and floor space, however it wasn’t great at keeping out the daylight. Some of the lighting effects in the earlier parts of the show didn’t translate well due to this. I appreciate nothing can be done about the light levels outside, however it would have benefitted the production to have something in place to block out some more light.

Sound throughout the show were unfortunately a little hit and miss, with microphones crackling and not being balanced well with the music used to underscore the scenes. There were also a number of occasions where the cast backstage could be heard over the speakers. The set throughout was pretty simple, with desks/chairs used to set scenes. Although it was a smaller set, the transitions between scenes were quite slow and clunky with moving the furniture around, especially bringing some larger pieces through the wings on to the stage. I found the props used within the production to be great, they were all fitting for the era and set the scenes well. I particularly liked the briefcase which shone a light from inside – this was a lovely touch.

Neil Atherton took on the leading role of The Clerk and gave a brilliant performance. The raw emotion he showed and his physicality were outstanding. His erratic behaviour after stealing the money from the bank was perfect to portray the feelings behind the character. The scene in the Snowy Forest was a particular highlight for me, with Neil showcasing the breakdown of The Clerk very well, you could have heard a pin drop with how well he had drawn the audience in. An excellent performance!

Another noteworthy performance was from Michael Pirks as The Dessert. Bringing all the glitz, glamour and confidence to the stage, Michael commanded the spotlight and brought some excellent comedy moments to an otherwise serious and straight piece of theatre. Sam Duxbury also performed well in the role of The Manager during the opening scene in Harrington’s Bank. She brought a level of sass and authority to the role, with some funny moments and great facial expressions.

I feel with the cast as a whole, there were a lot of moments where commitment the roles and the energy dropped throughout the show. This did have an affect on the pace of the play and keeping the flow. At times it did feel disjointed, however I’m not sure if this may have been down to the nature of the play cutting between scenes with very different settings/themes. There were also some issues with diction and clarity with the dialogue from the cast which made it hard to understand the context in some places.

Along the back of the stage was a scrim which often had performers behind placing their hands on it to create shadows. At first it was hard to understand why this was done, but it all tied in nicely at the end when The Clerk goes behind the scrim to join them. This was a clever touch to the visuals of the production. Costumes throughout were well fitting for the era and helped to carry the story along from scene to scene when jumping between themes.

The lighting throughout was very simple and constant with the cast always being well lit, even when performing on the raised platform within the floor space. Spotlights appeared to only be provided by the director with a handheld torch. While this was effective for the most part, the director often came into the audience to provide this lighting which I found to draw me out of the story. Some coloured lighting was added in towards the end of the show, particularly in the Pink Flamingo Club which I thought worked really well to add a new dimension and contract against the otherwise very black, white and grey colour palette.

Overall, this was a thought provoking production with some great performances from cast members, however I feel some more polishing in terms of set changes and diction, and some higher commitment and energy from the whole cast would have brought it to a different level. Thank you to Soup Productions for their invitation to the show and I wish them the best of luck with their upcoming productions.

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