Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Read the F***ing Manual
DNA Studio
Genre: Contemporary, New Writing, Physical Theatre, Theatre
Venue: Greenside RIddle's Court
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Olivia and David are an everyday couple, living an everyday life on an everyday street. But what is going on outside? What is threatening their lives? And what coping mechanisms can they both find to pull through with the support of others?
Review
Read the F***ing Manual introduces us to a young couple undertaking the very British pursuit of attempting a joint DIY project and having a row about how it should be done. We doubt from the beginning, perhaps having all been foolish enough to attempt this herculean endeavour, that this task will ever be finished. Olivia (Helena Harrison) is obsessed with sticking to instructions, David (Philip Honeywell) is much more gung-ho, happy to frustrate her with increasingly maverick regard for the printed manual. The audience enjoy the bickering, pleased when Olivia thwarts David’s daftness but appreciating his cynicism in the face of an IKEA project. Gradually the fun diminishes and tensions heighten as we learn the planned wardrobe build is an attempted distraction from a battle being waged outside their home. The couple are an everyman and everywoman , they could be from any country currently experiencing conflict (including the UK right now) and looking for ways to survive a relationship in a war zone. DNA Studio have taken the concept of the so-called IKEA effect (appreciation of what you have built rather than what you take off the shelf) as a metaphor for developing a strong relationship under pressure.
It is a strong opening premise developed by co-creators and directors Dor Frenkel and Amit Segall and one which is explored through physical theatre, immersive sound, and naturalistic drama interspersed with audience interaction which brings a lot of comedy. The couple are engaging characters but need fuller development through the writing to create two people who are little less ‘off the shelf’. Some of the dialogue is a tad formulaic too but if the company are given the opportunity for further development these are fixes which can be explored.
The actors do well with the job they are given. Hats off to the skill required to perform and build a wardrobe in a confined hot space being mindful of the audience’s safety. Frustratingly the stage taken up by bits of white melamine hampers the freedom to go full pelt on audience interaction. In other parts of the piece the thoughtful choreography responds movingly to the dramatic soundscape.
The original sound composition is powerful and evocative, effectively underscoring the mundanity of the task with booming discordant tones. Radio transmissions interrupt the naturalist dialogue, introducing jeopardy into the fragile bubble of safety the couple are trying to build. This underlines how important news journalism is for interpreting the world but also raises the question of whose news do we trust. Unfortunately some of the journalism is overly portentous and others a bit cheesy, again another fix for the edit.
The plot demands the wardrobe is built but then at key construction points that takes the actors’ full concentration and we lose the characters of Olivia and David – and qet a little bored waiting. The staging choices mean the audience don’t experience all the fun together which is frustrating. The interactive elements are engaging but leave the audience questioning who we are and why aren’t we experiencing being at war? At times there is such a disconnect between the different elements of the experience (naturalistic drama, breaking the fourth wall, physical representation of anguish) that the different performance elements fight against each other. The company could perhaps explore what happens to the key theme they want to explore when they pare back the overt references to the external conflict and solely present the wardrobe construction as an allegory for our fraught times.
Overall Read the F***ing Manual is a thoughtful contribution to political theatre, one developed from the creators’ personal experience of war and with the potential to provoke a profound audience response.
