Sunday, October 11, 2020

Review: SafeHaven - a place to call home

 

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been devastatingly far reaching. Alongside the medical and health concerns have been a wide array of social impacts. Young people have faced a trench of these, having endured disruption to their school lives, their socialising and their extra-curricular activities.

In that context, The Dan Tien Performing Arts Studio deserves a big round of applause for enabling this devised performance to go ahead as part of the Watford Fringe Festival. The young people involved here have clearly had a wonderful time flexing their creative muscles, creating an intriguingly original story, a range of challenging characters and a stage set that is both visually dynamic and Covid safe.

SafeHaven is a dystopian tale, which is perhaps unsurprising in the current times, but there are also touches of comedy, optimism and resilience. Nine women are forced together in a quest to escape a prison like existence watched over by an anonymous Doctor who surveils their every move but himself remains a disembodied voice. The story brings to the foreground a range of contemporary concerns around authority, rebellion and technology. Bubbling under the surface are many of the worries connected to social media, in particular concealed identities, curated identities and exaggerated life stories. 

For this young group to have produced this during lockdown is impressive. I understand the play is going to be developed further over the next few months and I wish the young cast every success as they continue to adapt their creativity to fit the the new norms of devising, rehearsing and performing in a pandemic.

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