Little Scratch dir. by Katie Mitchell-Hampstead/New Diorama

I heard Folk when it was on the radio earlier in the year, Simon Russell-Beale was in it. It was OK. 

Hampstead seem to have a habit of doing this now. What is the point in announcing on-sale times and then ignoring them?

Just tested positive for Covid so can't make Little Scratch tonight if anyone wants to go for free

Interested to read this, zahidf, as from the description the subject and treatment sounded both confusing and unappealing, so I didn't book. But still time if it sounds worth seeing.

We also saw it last night (waves to zahidf ) and would agree that it was intense and quite funny.

I really liked how the four cast were the inner and outer thoughts of the young woman, conflicting and loud and quiet and random at points throughout the day. I would question the need for the microphones, I thought that detracted a bit in such a small space. Sure the slight sound effects would have been harder to do but they could have been played in (as the bikes were for example). Impressed by all four of the cast, essentially standing without moving and delivering an interior monologue at times in sync and at times in contradiction to the other three also doing an interior monologue.

Runtime now 1.40 - down from the advertised two hours, oh and even if you have seat numbers all seats are actually unreserved and there was a queue from at least 10 min before doors opened.

Finally, on the theme. I would suggest checking the content warnings. The website is pretty light on detail, there is a bit more on a laminated sheet by the door but then in the free programme, there is an extra leaflet with a full page and a half - I feel all that information could have been done with being listed by Hampstead in advance.

I loved this! The text itself is both funny and really sad, but the concept is the bit that I found brilliant: you can always rely on Mitchell to explore and push the boundaries of theatre, dropping it on an unsuspecting audience at Hampstead Downstairs.

 

The audience last night was so immersed in it, you could have heard a fly buzzing if there was one in the room! Simply fantastic. Wish I could go again now, but it's sold out for the remainder of the run, which is making me both a little sad and really happy because I want as many people as possible to see it.

I tried to do the same and gave up. I don't think that any of them could be identified with a specific facet of the mind in a stable manner.

It was brilliant. Reading a few pages of the novel online (with a very peculiar layout of words on the page) made me seasick I'm sorry to say (also I was on the tube so maybe that was the reason). I think theatre was the perfect medium for this.

newdiorama.com/whats-on/little-scratch

Back at the new diorama theatre April 12th to May 13th

Probably my favourite thing of all the things I've seen in the Hampstead Downstairs space.

As long as you're ok with 4 different actors reflecting different aspects of one woman's personality, this is just the most intense and emotional trip into one woman's head.

For me, Katie Mitchell at her least technologically tricksy and most emotionally open. Absolutely brilliant. Very highly recommended, for me, based on Hampstead, anyway.

Will definitely see it again.

Saw this tonight and it's terrific, with 4 wonderful actors acting out the thoughts of a day in the life of the protagonist.

In an unassuming way, it's something of a cross between Complicite's "The Encounter," which used audio technology and foley effects to feed intimate thoughts inside your head, and "A Little Life," which stages traumatic thoughts and events, but for me, it works better than both.

Some spoilers follow. . .

4 spotlit actors, standing in front of 4 microphones, play one person's thoughts, occasionally using foley effects to create sounds. They sometimes speak alone, sometimes in varying combinations, and sometimes all at once. The effect is very much to mirror the myriad, often contradictory, raucous rush of thoughts that invade our consciousnesses.

The story told doesn't come close objectively to the level of trauma depicted in "A Little Life," but the "little scratch" of the title is undoubtedly a coping mechanism in the same vein that more extreme coping mechanisms are used in "A Little Life." And the play benefits from not going over the top: it feels so much more universal than it's more extreme cousin, much closer to the anxieties and abuses inflicted on so many more women, and because the rush of thoughts is so convincingly acted, it feels revelatory and universal simultaneously.

3 of the actors here played the same parts at Hampstead Downstairs, and they are pitch perfect. The new actor, Rebekah Murrell, taking the place of Moronke Akinola, slots in perfectly.

I see in the discussion above that some audience members wondered what part of the psyche each actor is playing, but I don't think it matters: it's the effect of the sheer rush of thoughts that 4 actors can portray that matters.

Incidentally, I do think there is a pattern to who says what, and for what it's worth, my thoughts are that the 2 outer actors are the instant unfiltered reporters of the protagonist's thoughts: on the far left, Eve Ponsonby plays the character herself, reporting instantly her thoughts and feelings about every incident, instantly, without too much analysis. Meanwhile, on the far right, Ragevan Vasan also gives instant reports, but ones which are less about feelings, more about facts.

The two central actors have a lot less to say because their utterances are about the very deepest feelings and thoughts of the character, maybe like an Id and a superego, with Eleanor Henderson on the centre left revealing the most primal uncontrollable childlike feelings of the character, and Rebekah Murrell giving the thoughtful rationalisations and potentially optimistic hopes of the character.

At Hampstead, Moronke Akinola found more humour in the protagonist's self-analysis, whereas Murrell plays it straight, avoiding any archness. Both approaches worked powerfully for me.

Eve Ponsonby, with the most lines, and reported thoughts, perfectly embodies the frantic moment to moment of a day in the life of someone scarred by trauma, her casual rapidfire both endearing and unnerving; and when the deep-voiced emotion-ravaged Henderson lets loose the protagonist's most primal internal narrative, her deepest most uncontrollable fears and desires, this concert of one person's daily thoughts becomes overwhelmingly moving and powerful.

This is a brilliant and revelatory piece of theatre, I feel, if you're up for the unconventional premise and setup.

5 stars from me.

PS: we were out at 9:05pm, so the advertised running time of 1 hour 35 minutes, without an interval, is correct.