Review: Some People Talk About Violence Is Depressing, Relevant, Funny And Exciting

Some People Talk About Violence, Camden People's Theatre ★★★★★

By Savannah Whaley Last edited 99 months ago
Review: Some People Talk About Violence Is Depressing, Relevant, Funny And Exciting Some People Talk About Violence, Camden People's Theatre 5

There’s a reason why everyone’s talking about Barrel Organ. A young but already multi award-winning ensemble, they're an 11-strong collection of Warwick University graduates who have been causing a bit of a stir. Their latest production, Some People Talk About Violence, is one of the most exciting and relevant pieces of theatre we’ve seen in a while.

The narrative explores the life of a family: girl – back at home, now jobless; brother – living in Thailand with his boyfriend; and mother – despairing at her daughter’s seeming total lack of drive. The three characters are puppeteered and provoked by a narrator, who pushes each of them to expose their innermost thoughts and feelings, whilst also leading the cast in a number of games and improvisations that are interspersed throughout the performance.

A creation like this highlights what is important in theatre; the actors are in their own clothes, the stage is bare and the props minimal. And yet they manage to genuinely move their audience — something that so many larger-scale productions fail to do. These four actors expose something in themselves, and this in turn exposes something in their audience members, which no amount of elaborate set or costume could do.

This company are exciting because of the way they combine impressive talent, absolute collaboration, and a willingness to push and probe their audiences, with an unforgiving desire to expose the realities of living in our current society. Some People Talk About Violence is moving, it is funny, it is depressing, and it does that thing that can only be achieved in the theatre, and only when it is at its very best – lead the audience to feel, if just for a moment, absolutely connected to those other bodies in the room, on stage and in the audience.

Some People Talk About Violence continues at Camden People’s Theatre until 12 December. Tickets £12/£10. Londonist saw this production on a complimentary ticket.

Last Updated 02 December 2015