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MY NAME IS IRRELEVANT A journey through a broken mind ●●●●● GOOD WITH MAPS Rewarding journey into the unknown ●●●●●

Matthew Hall’s arresting poetic performance in My Name is Irrelevant skilfully guides the audience through a fractured psyche. Hall uses an old-school slide projector to show

pictures of a huge roster of colourful characters. Each one has a name and a story delivered with rising intensity by an increasingly manic Hall. The click of the projector as it changes slides punctuates the end of one tale and the beginning of the next, giving Hall, and the audience, a moment to breathe. Hall’s verse is accompanied by a live original score

written and performed by Jim Harbourne. Using a drum box and guitar, the rhythmic music blends effortlessly with his poetry, and the effect is almost hypnotic. The stories Hall tells about the people in his head vary enormously, and the diversity of his imaginary companions makes real the struggle to keep a grip on reality when the fiction is so tempting.

However, this isn’t a tragic tale. The message is one of hope. Hall’s display of a tragic descent into madness is so convincing that his ability to pull it back and leave on an optimistic, but realistic, note is all the more remarkable. (Liam Hainey) Assembly Hall, until 28 Aug (not 14, 21), 3pm, £9–£11 (£8–£10).

Nikolai Gogol, Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf: these and plenty more get namechecked in Noëlle Janaczewska’s unashamedly intellectual solo show from Australia’s Siren Theatre. Jane Phegan gives a brisk, ideally pitched performance as Janaczewska, so bewitched by the uncharted wildness of the Amazon that she embarks on a voyage of discovery, while shuttling back and forth between Australia and Hertfordshire to care for her ailing father. There’s a lot going on: Janaczewska’s script darts between psychogeography and literary references, the perils of suburban life and the slow debilitation of Parkinson’s. But it’s never less than ringingly clear in its quicksilver connections and, best of all, wears its considerable learning very lightly with gags and gracefulness. In the end, not all of Good with Maps’ copious themes coalesce, but by its heartfelt conclusion the show’s provocative intellectual explorations have come to mirror Janaczewska’s Amazonian voyage and the very different journey into the unknown being taken by her father.

This is a complex, deeply rewarding piece of theatre, one that balances cerebral exuberance with shattering emotional power. (David Kettle) C primo, until 28 Aug (not 14), 5.30pm, £9.50– £11.50 (£7.50–£9.50).

SARAH, SKY AND SEVEN OTHER GUYS Disappointing exploration of sexuality ●●●●●

Sarah, Sky and Seven Other Guys tries to tell the story of a woman and a gay man, seeking to assert their sexuality in a world that wants to repress it. It’s immediately apparent that the performance

has sex placed firmly at the centre. The titular ‘seven other guys’ stand silently around the fringes of the stage in various states of dress or undress. Only when Sarah (Hanna Shields) or Sky (Shafeeq Shajahan) pull them into their bed do they become active participants. It’s an effective bit of staging that rejects traditional gendered power dynamics. It’s a shame then that the rest simply can’t live up to its early promise. Shields’ and Shahjahan’s performances are stilted and awkward and because their friendship is unconvincing, its eventual breakdown fails to resonate at all.

The script is equally adept at building emotional

barriers between audience and actor. The social commentary of Sarah, Sky . . . is not woven into the narrative, but rather highlighted through sharp segueways. This stylistic approach makes engagement impossible, which ultimately makes the whole piece feel disappointingly hollow. (Liam Hainey) C royale, until 28 Aug, 4.40pm, £10.50–£11.50 (£8.50–£9.50).

ADAM Deeply moving realisation of a real trans experience ●●●●●

When we first meet modern-day Adam, he is alone and ruminating on the complexities of language. ‘In Arabic, our words are either masculine or feminine’, he notes. English, in comparison, doesn’t address gender but speaks to ‘the soul of the person’. He is eventually joined on stage by Egyptian Adam, the female incarnation of our title character, who admonishes him for disparaging their mother tongue. In these few opening exchanges between the two, we are given a striking glimpse into the internal intricacies of a character tormented by opposing forces of gender, sexuality and home. Adam is a true story of journeys; from Egypt to Glasgow, female

to male, and border to border. Condemned for his desire to live openly in his native Alexandria, Adam flees to Glasgow with the intention of seeking asylum. It is here, in the confines of a cramped Glasgow flat that he has an epiphany. ‘Can the soul of a man be trapped in a woman?’, he types nervously into his laptop and suddenly the answer is visible and real for the first time. This moment is amplified through the presence of the Adam

World Choir, which features the voices of 120 trans and non- binary individuals from around the world. Their stories of hope provide the comfort and reassurance that sets Adam’s transition in motion, providing him with the impetus to embrace his true self. In Frances Poet’s script and Cora Bissett’s direction, there is an innate sensitivity, which comes through emphatically in the outstanding performances of Adam Kashmiry and Neshla Caplan. In particular, their sharp mirroring of one another symbolises the competing impulses at play within a body and mind in transition.

With an extraordinary story at its heart, Adam is ultimately a compelling piece of theatre, which seeks to fully interrogate the challenges of the trans experience. (Arusa Qureshi) Traverse, until 27 Aug (not 14, 21), times vary, £21.50 (£16.50).

10–17 Aug 2017 THE LIST FESTIVAL 91

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