Blink, written by Phil Porter and brought to life this week by Studiospace at The White Theatre, is an irresistible yet poignant play about a girl and a boy whose lives coincide and develop in parallel, as they struggle with finding themselves and each other. Expressively and humbly acted, it is a real treat to watch.
Grace Mulley and Joe Kelly portray Sophie and Jonah, the play’s two characters grappling with loss, love and solitude. As a two-hander, the two never leave the stage, but the credibility and naturalism with which they approach their characters and the stage space keeps the audience at ease throughout.
Mulley’s Sophie is endearing, keeping to the right side of sweetness as a young woman mourning her late father. Mulley renders her character’s pain, as well as her courage, in joyous form, so that the audience is totally absorbed in her story: we laugh when she laughs, and gasp when things take a turn for the worse.
(Photo credit: Studiospace)
Kelly, equally, is an excellent Jonah, deftly juggling poignancy and humour, with pitch-perfect physicality. Kelly’s characterisation is loveable and awkward, and connects immediately with an audience who sympathise with every endearing word. His humour, sometimes dark and sometimes charming, is one of the play’s most popular elements. The audience wills Jonah on to success with Sophie, as the two actors generate an almost-tangible chemistry onstage.
The two accomplished actors also switch effortlessly between a series of additional characters, donning a single accessory and transforming their entire physicality so that Kelly really could be a bothersome office mate, and Mulley a “German” artist (the sardonic nod to the audience to incite compliance with her accent was a particularly excellent touch).
In Blink, the skill of the director, Rachel Kelly, is also clear. Every aspect of the production is woven together poignantly, from sound to visual projections. The production owes a lot to its “homely” feel, and this is generated significantly by the ease with which Mulley and Kelly move around the stage, interacting with the space in a way which appears beautifully choreographed. Blink glides effortlessly between the witty and the thoughtful, between the inspiring and the devastating, so that the audience is kept guessing. Rachel Kelly makes the play cute and crowd-pleasing, whilst at the same time conveying Blink‘s raw emotional appeal.
(Photo credit: Studiospace)
The sound team should also be praised for ensuring that the play’s scenes are easy to place and settle into with every change. Ambient noise, coupled with sweet animations on a projected screen seamlessly transform the established ‘bedroom’ stage space into an office, a coffee shop, and a hospital. It also allows the few staple props to become malleable, as the central desk becomes a division between up- and downstairs, a bench on the London eye, a hospital bed, and even a bed in the garden. The AV for the London Eye was particularly beautiful, as the dimmed lights and moving projection danced across Mulley and Kelly to create a sense of intense intimacy perfectly in tune with the interior of a capsule on the Eye at night.
It is the duality of Blink that makes it such a success: it beckons the audience forwards to enjoy the characters’ lighter episodes and urges reflection in contrast. A play that thrives in the small White Theatre, Studiospace’s production is intimately emotional, so that the audience leaves with their hearts truly warmed.
★★★★★
(Featured image credit: Emma Hughes and Alex Mincksy)