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Adelaide Fringe 2018

Love Letters to the Public Transport System

Molly Taylor

Genre: Solo Performance, Theatre

Venue: Holden Street Theatres

Festival:


Low Down

In a fast-moving world where no one stays in one place for long, Love Letters to the Public Transport System seeks to find and thank the people who transport us daily; to friends, to lovers, to work, to moments of significance in our lives.

Review

Cursing public transport seems like a natural thing. It’s not on time, it can be dirty, the air-conditioning doesn’t work – these phrases find their way into our day to day conversations. But when your daily routine, livelihood or social life actually relies on this surface, who do you thank when things go right? And what if those moments that define your life can actually be traced back to a bus, a train or a tube? How do you thank that person up the front who made that journey possible?

Love Letters to the Public Transport System took us along three winding paths. The aspiring writer looking to track down his muse – Luke. The jilted lover who’s just found out not all is what it seems with her fiancé. Then there is our heroine – Molly – who just wants to thank those drivers who brought her back and forth to visit her lover. We’re were driven along the backroads of three stories with very different turning points, particularly that of Molly. Heart broken and believing that nothing good will ever happen again, it’s a new job and various modes of the UK public transport system that took her to THAT table on THAT night. The world is suddenly shining again, and Molly is desperate to thank all of the drivers that made THAT possible. But when all she gets is form response letters and un-unanswered, Molly decides she’s not giving in that easily.

Molly Taylor only needed a simple seat – looking remarkably like it came from the last Adelaide Metro train I sat on – as her set. With very little movement, she was able to transition almost seamlessly between characters that also include the drivers of her carriages of destiny, and the wives who support them. Her strong and powerful voice empowered every one of her many characters.

This (mostly) uplifting story was as enjoyable as it was inspirational. In a society where a majority of feedback received is negative, it was hard not to think about all the thankyou’s that we probably owe our public transport drivers. And who else do we owe thanks to, who we seemly brush past as we go about our busy lives? Should we be turning to social media to commend, rather than criticise? Possibly….

At just a touch under 60 minutes, the only thing lacking was perhaps slightly more. I left thinking I was missing part of the story somewhere and the almost capacity audience was certainly captivated enough that a slight extension to a few of the journeys would have been welcome. Even so, Molly’s story telling definitely presented a sincere and honest insight that was appreciated as well as enjoyed.

Published