Writer: Timotei Cobeanu
Director: Michael Crean
Danny is dying. But he’s about to live. He’s suffocating, but he’s breathing. He’s ecstatic, tortured, asleep, alive, everything and nothing all at the same time. Part love letter to London, part abstract modernist nightmare, If Mouth Could Speak is a comatose journey through an unsure city performed by an endlessly talented actor-composer duo.
In the wake of his run-in with a moving car, Danny is in the hospital in a sort of dream state. Embodied onstage by writer Timotei Cobeanu, he journeys through a formless London and encounters beings of varying comprehension. Sometimes, he bumps into a pedestrian, quarrels with a commuter, though Cobeanu is the sole actor, which leaves their existence uncertain.
For the bulk of the mixed-medium performance, Danny is accompanied by the embodiment of London. To him, now, London is a woman. They weave through familiar towns and situations– a smoke break, a pub night, a late walk– drawn by her hedonistic pull. Sometimes she’s kind, others not, and being always played by Cobeanu, these dialogues are unconventional but wildly successful. Watching Timotei transition from London to Danny somehow manages to add to the tone and emotion of the performance, the ebbs and flows of the personas speaking to his rare talent.
Their aimless voyage is periodically interrupted by dance and seizure, which is both shocking and grounding. The poetry in which Danny often speaks is so dense that these episodes give the audience some downtime while also keeping his unstable condition post-trauma in the foreground. EKG beeps and doctor dialogue sail above a physically twisting protagonist, and you wonder if he’s going to wake up or perhaps if he’s already dead.
Switching between free verse, rhyming, and conversational dialogue, Cobeanu’s writing weaves a number of topics into its bite-sized 50-minute runtime. The character of London echoes the intoxicating but punishing life of the city, making for a number of satisfying, painful hits of reality. Other verses are lost in meaning, though; in particular, a scene in which Danny and God discuss giving the concept of London an abstract blowjob. An ambitious project in style and content, such moments are inevitable in atypical free-verse and are thankfully few in number.
The other half of the duo, Michael Crean, is equally noteworthy. His lighting and sound design add a great deal to the one-man show, at times feeling even like a film. Original music and sound effects place Danny in the city, but just as easily in the hospital or even an abstract purgatory space– all of which is invaluable when there is no setting or props. And perhaps no man could occupy the stage better than writer Cobeanu; this is his story to tell.
He has the writer’s advantage of knowing the text intensely and, furthermore, is willing to warp his speech and body when the play calls for it. And the play does– If Mouth Could Speak requires the utmost commitment of the actor but of the audience as well. While it can be a bit too out-there, the work is rife with cultural and personal relevance if you’re willing to pick apart the rapid poetry. In a bold attempt that stretches from ecstasy to ego-death, Timotei Cobeanu is certainly an actor to look out for.
Runs until 15 November 2024
