BRIGHTON FRINGE: The Forecast – Sweet Venues St Andrews Church

Director: Ben Samuels
Reviewer: Bethan Highgate-Betts

Inspired by George Saunders’ short story The Semplica Girls Diaries and developed in collaboration with Olivier Award-winning writer Bola Agbaje, Limbik’s The Forecast is all kinds of brilliant. One of the 10 selected shows for WINDOW 2017, Brighton Fringe’s arts industry showcase for high-quality new work.

Set in a dystopian future, we see four women Maria (Gael Le Cornee), Aramide (Amie Buhari), Magdalena (Eva Mørkeseth) and Jasmine (Sarah Johnson) forced by war, poverty, natural disaster and debt to become living ornaments. The latest commodity, the women are connected by a wire through their temples and suspended from trees in the garden of a wealthy family. On the families command the women sing, motivate and give the weather forecast, but it’s what they do in their spare time that’s really interesting.

A tale of hardship, friendship and understanding, The Forecast addresses many very real issues that we face in our own time, including that of the ethnicity pay gaps and makes us question our own ideas of worth. The longer the four women are up there the more they learn about each other’s lives and the more connected they become.

Four phenomenal performances are at the heart of this impressive piece. Flitting from comedy to devastation in a matter of moments. With the mesmerising addition of live music by Susi Evans throughout and the slow moving simplicity of Zannie Fraser’s shadow puppets, the piece is a breathtaking and immersive experience.

The staging, comprised of four giant white dresses designed by Diana Castaldi and mounted on wheeled platforms that the actors can slip in and out of, makes for quite the spectacle. Delicate choreography makes even the simplest of movements resemble dance sequences.

A gripping, thought-provoking script, beautifully directed and brilliantly acted. The Forecast is not to be missed.

Runs until 14 May 2017 | Image: Contributed

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