Review: THE COLLAB by Lauren Morley at The Space - 31 May to 11 June

‘Thought provoking, well presented and wholly relevant’ ★★★

It has been noticeable that theatre is increasingly looking at the internet - and in particular its ‘seedier’ and ‘harmful’ side - for up to the minute stories. It is vital that, as a whole, theatre reflects society and is forward looking and that, in line with this, uses video technology to enhance the audience experience and to help tell the story. Indeed, the success of Dear Evan Hansen is a good example of this.

As a reference point, Lauren Morley’s ‘The Collab’ uses the 2014 experience of many in the online community who experienced sexually coercive behaviour from a number of well known bloggers and influencers. Here we see the likeable but naive Ella Blair beginning to grow an online audience - so called ‘Blair’s Bears’ - for her channel, focussed on sustainability and the environment. Alongside her more confident and bolshy friend Kat (Maria Eastwood Krah), they come across Max (Andre Frey) who has 2 million plus followers and asks them to take part in a piece (allegedly) for his studies that looks at how women are portrayed in art.

We see Max and Ella begin to flirt both in person and via text messages and videos cleverly played out on a big screen and this works really well in the cavernously Space theatre. When Ella is filmed against a green screen replicating Manet’s ‘Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe’ and, gaining in confidence, she removes her bikini top strap we start to get a sense of where the action is going. At this point, Max is kind and gentle, telling his pal Brett (Clark Alexander) to be considerate when wolf whistling, but we know what’s coming.

The set up - the first half effectively - is neatly done aided by the change in online followers for both Max and Ella which is smartly shown on the screen changing at regular intervals. Alas, in the second half the show loses its way. Max is shown as being ‘dodgy’ when he makes clumsy passes at Kat and his mood swings are constant. Kat talks in part about how her father had mis-treated her mother and the clues are all there. But when Max is fully exposed following a very oddly presented trip to California for a conference, we literally go to full on ‘sex pest’ mode without having seen enough to fully empathise with Ella and appreciate that Max is manipulative and, indeed, coercive.

There is too much exposition, particularly in a long scene around Kat’s debut photography show, and we have to imagine too much that is played off stage. The ending is far too neat and quick but I very much liked the ‘epilogue’ where Ella, having taken a break from social media, gets back to it …

Overall, this is a bright, vivacious, ‘on the money’ show and Morley is a talent to watch. She’s helped by some smart direction and transitions and a cast that works hard. I especially liked Louise Lord as Ella who moved through the gears and emotions with ease, and there are nice relevant touches like snippets of Britney Spears’ ‘Lucky’ and Max always having the same sign off to his followers.

 

All in all, well worth a visit - thought provoking, well presented and wholly relevant to these days spent online.

THE COLLAB by Lauren Morley at The Space - 31 May to 11 June

Box Office https://space.org.uk/event/the-collab/

Writer: Lauren Morley

Director and co-producer: Rachael Bellis

Co-Artistic Director for Aequitas and co-producer on the show: LaTanya Santana Peterkin

Facebook: AequitasTheatre

Reviewed by Paul Maidment

Paul had a long career at the BBC where he ran a number of commercial / digital businesses and he now consults to the creative content sector. His love of theatre came from his wife whom he met at university and he has been attending shows ever since. In 2021/22 Paul was a member of The Olivier Awards public panel which re-enforced his belief in theatre as the most exciting and engrossing cultural medium.