Writer: Slovak Theatre in London
Director: Zuzana Strnátová
The two years of the pandemic were a defining period in our lives and it is now the inspiration for Slovak Theatre in London’s new sketch show Extreme [The New Norm] showing at The Waters Rats as part of the Camden Fringe. Running for 70 minutes, this combination of dramatic scenes, comedy skits and dance pieces is a varied reflection on the restrictions, rules and lifestyle changes that may feel like a distant memory but soon come flooding back.
It opens with a very clever video, a jab at the UK government’s ill-thought-out poster campaign suggesting those in the creative industries retrain for more ‘practical’ careers. Here, in a short montage, an actor, photographer and painter are offered alternative jobs with the tagline ‘Don’t be useless, retrain.’ There are other flashes of brilliance here too including a swimwear fashion show across the pandemic timeline which ends the piece with numerous ingenious creations made of sewn-together surgical masks, while a shaming session in the park pits the smug runners against the lolloping sunbathers who go into a dance war.
Slovak Theatre Company have some very arch comments on the regulatory confusion around who we could meet including a fun scene as three neighbours share a drink interrupted by a visit from the police who cannot explain the social bubble guidance, supermarket fights over toilet roll and a particularly pointed scenario in parallel workplaces where being vaccinated or being anti-vaxx is the priority. This latter idea becomes an extended sketch that develops into a rom-com option that links the cleaning firm with the tailors’ shop. And this kind of thinking beyond a single punchline becomes a feature of Extreme [The New Norm] as several ideas develop into mini plays about life with covid.
But Slovak Theatre in London have some thinking to do about what they want the collective message of their show to be and why they want to stage a work specifically about the pandemic now. Is this a political call for wider public inquiry into the choices that were made and how they affected individuals or does the show merely want to point at the past and wonder how we ever lived like that? There are lots of ideas in here, some unfinished thoughts and some over-extended concepts, but it does need a theme to tie it all together and to shape what the company would like audiences to take away from it.
Performed by Simona Vrabcová, Rebeka Jurčacková, Dalibor Buranda, Simona Gibejová, Tereza Růžičková and Jozef Radovský, this is a talented cast with lots of ideas and an eye for character development, creating a variety of sympathetic and slightly monstrous creations, and the group are equally comfortable moving swiftly between dramatic and comic performance. Packing in more than a dozen scenes in a short running time, this multimedia sketch show gives the cast lots of different roles to play and has a strong basis for further development.
Runs until 27 August 2023
Camden Fringe runs until 27 August 2023
