Arun Graves-Kochlar and Isabel Sander present three very different sketches which challenge their audience to consider the anguish of motherhood, the damage racism inflicts on its victims and the unexpected joy of strangers meeting on a station platform.
Ada, once besotted with Harry, now feels trapped. Her dreams of a career, thwarted by her children and the selfish demands of Harry. This is a story you would hope was history but sadly remains prescient today. The raw emotion Isabel brings to the role is heartbreaking, yet the end brings a shred of hope, that all is not lost for Ada as she confronts a difficult choice.
Some light relief arrives when a pirate and a fairy meet on a station platform. The pirate starts up a conversation and the pair soon realise they are going to the same party. What follows is a conversation that moves between the mundane and the philosophical, touching on lost dreams, lost friends and how we are remembered. Both are drifting but their fledgling friendship carries the promise of a brighter future.
The final sketch leaves the audience almost as traumatised as Arun. The promise of childhood destroyed by the onslaught of racist bullying stretches into adulthood. The hopes and dreams of that young boy are destroyed and replaced by fear and self-loathing. You feel Arun’s pain and despair at the cruelty people inflict on each other.
Arun and Isabel bring powerful emotions to their performances, lightened by a welcome touch of whimsy,
Kim Cowie saw ‘Foot in the Door’ at Alphabetti Theatre.
More Newcastle Fringe reviews
‘I love my job’ at the Newgate Social
Katie Doherty and the Navigators at Alphabetti
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