REVIEW: Attempts on Her Life at Hen & Chickens Theatre 10 – 14 June 2025
“director Sam Smithson comes to play in this funny, provocative and inventive piece of theatre” ★★★★1/2
Martin Crimp’s ‘Attempts on Her Life’ is a director’s playground, and Not Quite Ready’s director Sam Smithson certainly comes to play in this production at the Hen & Chickens Theatre. With ‘17 scenarios for the theatre’ written sans character, sans stage direction, and sans narrative thread bound only by a female other, namely Anne/Annie/Anya/Annuhska – who might be a terrorist, or an expensive sports car, or the girl next door, or a backpacker or an artist documenting her suicide attempts – Crimp’s play demands a response to present socio-political context. His surrealism is aptly summarised in the line, ‘it’s surely the point that the search for a point is pointless,’ as the play cuts between harrowing depictions of ethnic violence and satirical monologues on capitalism.
Not Quite Ready Productions boast an impressive ensemble who manage, with great energy and craft, to build a narrative out of the apparent episodic chaos of the play. What that narrative is depends on the audience member, so I will avoid my own interpretation so as not to ruin the fun. There are many elements to compliment, notably the video and lighting design from Beril Yavuz; I was absorbed particularly by animations of girls in lingerie that felt like a strange crossroad between a strip club, The Sims and a campaign for positive sex work. Wil Pritchard’s sound design and composition is equally as effective, the final piece of a unique creative puzzle.
Director Sam Smithson demonstrates a sophisticated command of storytelling, staging THE CAMERA LOVES YOU in a 2000s nightclub, GIRL NEXT DOOR as a leather-clad rock number (performed by a captivating Tom Terry), and TRAGEDY OF LOVE AND IDEOLOGY as a kind of writers’ room set against the backdrop of the Third Reich. Another favourite was UNTITLED (100 words), where Cameron Wilson plays a flamboyant art critic, glasses thick-rimmed and nose up-turned, walking the boundaries of satire with expertise. Meghan Bartual Smyth brings a calm steadiness to the play’s anarchy, while Bethany Monk-Lane delivers racking monologues with a crazed but crafted twinkle in her eye.
While the company’s name does suggest that the show needs a final polish, this is a funny, provocative and inventive piece of theatre that entertains on both an absurd and a human level. Whether you know the play or it’s your first venture into Crimp’s weird world, Not Quite Ready’s production of ‘Attempts on Her Life’ is not to be missed.
Photography: Claire McHugh
Attempts on Her Life by Martin Crimp
Not Quite Ready Productions
Hen & Chickens Theatre
10th – 14th June 2025
Box office: https://www.unrestrictedview.co.uk/attempts-on-her-life-by-martin-crimp/
CREATIVE
Director - Sam Smithson
Video and Lighting Designer - Beril Yavuz
Sound Designer and Composer - Wil Pritchard
ENSEMBLE
Bethany Monk-Lane
Cameron Wilson
Meghan Bartual Smyth
Tom Terry
Social media: @nqrproductions
