Three lads. One huge night out. What could possibly go wrong? Answer: Everything! Ali Taylor’s Overspill gives us a big night out going wrong in perhaps the worst way. Both packed full of laughs and a physical intensity rarely seen on the NNT stage, one things for sure: Bromley will never be the same again.
Overspill focuses on the antics of three post-school teenagers, Baron (Daniel O’Connor), Potts (James Pardon) and Finch (Nick Slater). Baron looks forward to uni and a longed for reconciliation with estranged girlfriend Michelle. The paranoid (and occasionally terrifying) Finch is off to join the TA and Potts, the natural born entertainer of the group, just wants everything to stay exactly as it is.
The lads set off for a standard night out of booze, crazy dance moves and, of course, Mackie D’s. But then the bombs start to explode, tearing their town and possibly their friendship apart as they try to get to the bottom of exactly what has happened. Overspill is particularly unusual in the way in which it is written, it comes across as almost the love child of a play and a poem. It combines the lyrical, rhythmic language of a poem with a heavily physical type of performance. Expect flips, brawls and a fair bit of slow mo running.
Overspill is particularly unusual in the way in which it is written, it comes across as almost the love child of a play and a poem
As a whole, the play was fantastically well done. The performances from all three leading men were incredibly strong, doing amazingly well to keep up Overspill’s insanely fast moving pace. With lines jumping between the characters at phenomenal speed, the cast’s handling of the dialogue was a real feat to behold, injecting real passion and emotion on top of the intensity.
The three actors worked up a real sweat, throwing themselves whole-heartedly into their performances
Particularly enjoyable is a wonderfully graphic monologue delivered with exceptional skill by Slater. The power of his performance caused a shiver to run down many audience members’ spine. Interestingly, all three boys serve as narrators, leading to confusion and chaos, as internal monologues conflict and disagree about various aspects of the night’s events. Though this does occasionally make it quite hard to follow exactly what is actually happening, the three actors worked up a real sweat, throwing themselves whole-heartedly into their performances.
Overspill is an absolutely fantastic show and brings another spectacular term at the New Theatre to a satisfying end
The staging of the play itself very minimalist, composed simply of different sized graffiti-covered boxes. However, the cast use these simple objects to bring the story to life, transforming grey boxes into a range of items including nightclub podiums, bus seats and TVs.
Overspill is an absolutely fantastic show and brings another spectacular term at the New Theatre to a satisfying end. Though there were some occasional issues with projection and delivery, the speed of the play makes such flaws entirely understandable and only vaguely noticeable. With a perfect blend of comedy and action, Overspill caters wonderfully to a huge range of audiences and is well worth a watch.
7/10
Henry Stanley
