I left feeling a little hypnotised and very meditative
Tim Crouch (writer and director) brings his Toto Kerblammo! back to the Unicorn after its successful run two years ago, writes Michael Holland.
A stark set confronts us as we enter the black box with a bright white sheepskin floor, lit minimally by strip lighting. We are given headphones where we listen to gentle rain. It is quietly hypnotic.
When the last of the audience are seated, a voice whispers into our right ears, ‘Listen.’ And that is what we do for the next 70 minutes as Lily Olufemi-Bywaters (Effy), Oliver Baines (Toto and Noah) bound and frolic, fight and argue and romp around the stage. We do hear others talking: Effy’s mum, her aunt and uncle come through the headsets, but we are never sure what is going on or where we are.
When there are sirens awailing, lights aflashing, and brakes ascreeching accompanied by screams of anguish, we know someone is hurt. Mum talks of being in hospital. Is it her in the accident? Or has she been sectioned? Is it Effy? She thinks she is; or else she is either asleep or comatose, because she knows she shouldn’t be having a conversation with Toto, her rescue dog. Or is she dead, and this soft, fluffy floor is the clouds of Heaven?
Toto Kerblammo! is not an easy watch; we have to work hard to follow this story that is given to us by a scattergun method rather than a linear tale, but we all get there in the end. We see the trauma Effy is going through with her mum, the threat of losing her dog, and the arguments with her relatives. We see the love between Effy and Toto, and there is a distinct atmosphere of death and loss in the air that we all, as one, have to deal with, here at the Unicorn as in life outside. As one part of her life disintegrates in turmoil, Noah tries to be a friend.
The use of the headphones providing all the peripheral information without needing actors or set changes was genius. We got the necessary context to the story being told, without simplifying it. The wonderful, flawless cast of two did all the rest. Lily Olufemi-Bywaters faced up to sinking in her world of horror, as a 12-year-old, with hard-edged grit, keeping her loyal dog close and everyone else at arm’s length as she negotiated loss of love and letting love in. Oliver Baines played Toto as a dog who knows nothing but love and devotion to its master, and as local kid Noah who just wants to be friendly.
I left the theatre feeling a little hypnotised and very meditative from the ASMR-ish soundscape I’d just been enjoying, and not sure if my young charge, Tommy P., aged 10, had completely got the plot. So I asked. He gave me a ten-second summary that confirmed that he did, with a look that confirmed that he wasn’t too sure about my cognitive skills…
Unicorn Theatre, 147 Tooley Street, London SE1 2HZ until 22nd May.
Booking and full details: https://www.unicorntheatre.com/whats-on
