That Feeling When
★★★★☆ Charmingly authentic
Studio Theatre: Fri 25/ Sat 26 Oct 2024
Review by Sophie Good
That Feeling When is a journey exploring the seasons through the eyes of Lyra’s Young Company, who are all aged 12+ from the Craigmillar and wider area, which they have devised themselves.
A remount from the 2023 production, the show is suitable for an audience of aged 10 plus. After two nights at the Studio, this short autumn tour plays its third and final date in Easterhouse in November.
A scene from That Feeling When from Lyra Young Company at the Studio Theatre.
The Lyra Young Company’s Feel Good list includes grating cheese directly into your mouth, petting a fluffy animal and a drink of ice cold water. The company use musical and immersive movement piece to create a dynamic piece; taking you through the seasons and what the company find joy in.
And there is much joy – the cast are dancing, rapping, playing instruments, operating the set, reading short pieces of poetry and exchanging captions on a huge pile of t-shirts they remove one by one.
carefully constructed insight
The audience sit on rugs around the space, whilst the cast create short vignettes and tableaus around them. It’s a carefully constructed insight into their world, directed by Natalie Barua with Caitlin Mulgrew and Jo Timmins. They have clearly worked hard to create something collaboratively and it feels very much from the perspective of the young people involved.
A scene from That Feeling When from Lyra Young Company at the Studio Theatre.
The performers are very much at ease with themselves, with some charming choreography from Bridie Gane seemingly effortless incorporated alongside playing their own instruments, rapping and even at one point, simply laughing whilst they fall off a wall.
The charm of the piece lies in the comfort and confidence all the performers have with themselves and with the scenes they have devised. Each one of the ensemble – Bianka, Dara, Deborah, Malika, Manal, Megan. Nadia, Orla, Reagan and Samuel, have a natural affinity with their roles.
authenticity
Their authenticity and self possession conveys the broad concept of the piece really well – which was about taking joy in the small things in life and enjoying them with all of your senses. The scents of freshly cut grass and sun cream were sprayed above the audience at times – which just about sums up what there is to relish in this 40 minute sensory journey.
Lyra aims to blur the lines between youth and professional performance and certainly the ease of this production, the self possessed real-ness of this show and its young people at the heart of it really shines through.
Running time: 40 minutes (no interval)
Studio Theatre, 22 Potterrow, EH8 9BL.
Fri 25/Sat 26 Oct 2024
Fri: 7.30pm; Sat: 2pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Platform, The Bridge, 1000 Westerhouse Road, Easterhouse, Glasgow, G34 9JW
Fri 8/Sat 9 Nov 2024
Fri: 6pm; Sat 1pm.
Tickes and details: Book here.
A scene from That Feeling When from Lyra Young Company at the Studio Theatre.
ENDS
