REVIEW: A Playlist for the Revolution ⭐️⭐️📍Holloway Theatre, Bush Theatre

In A Playlist for the Revolution, the two leads showcase another example of opposites attracting (and could well be living on two different planets) when we first meet them: Jonathan (played by Liam Lau-Fernandez) is a native to the Special Autonomous Region (SAR) of Hong Kong, and has a penchant for classical music; on the other hand, we’ve got Chloe (Mei Mei Macleod) who sure is as British as they come (and who very much stans Queen B), albeit with her own motherland miles away on the Asian continent.

The play’s writer AJ Yi seeks to understand a connection made one fortuitous evening at a wedding prior to Chloe’s flight back home (which she inevitably misses as a result of sleeping over at Jonathan’s place). Eventually, Chloe’s return to university up north in Durham (a place renowned for chips and gravy, which could well have been any part of the north of England to be quite honest) , and an unfurling of their story develops as the Umbrella protest movement gains momentum.

They remain in contact, sharing songs on a shared Spotify playlist, which eventually provide some comfort to a new-found “patriot” Jonathan whose love of wanting to be invested in political affairs stem from a chance encounter with a janitor (Mr Chu, played quite angrily by Zak Shukor) of the university room. Chloe’s recommendations include ‘Umbrella‘ by Rihanna an shares some  classical music and Cantonese pop

Instantly upon arrival, the set looked to be a promising choice with its square stage and blocks mimicking the sky scrapers of the city. However, it merely boxea that open to show local snacks received in a food parcel and slightly underwhelming. Hong Kong seems nothing more than skyscarpers-ville and therefore it’s hard to believe the setting at times.

As someone who has in fact visited Hong Kong numerous times, the uninspired set didn’t bring as much delight as the characters did in bringing their spark and comedic wit. It felt somewhat rushed in the design element, with lazy stereotypes of boy-meets-girl and overreliance on the skyscrapers. Furthermore, the direction was jarring  – with the actors meandering around the stage and then entering through what seemed as the only entrance – leaving me underwhelmed at the lack of creativity that the piece could have afforded.

There is a fair amount of ripe material here that simply doesn’t mesh together in a coherent or seamless manner, but does garner laughs from the audience for whom it is so vital to have representations of Hong Kong culture on the stage. AJ Yi’s writing isn’t quite the strong point as it wanes at times, but some jokes do land with ease when they don’t portray a stock characters/tropes (such as Mr Chu). In particular, when there’s a fuss to pay over the bill (something noted between masculine presenting people in certain cultures) or the “goofiness” in Jason’s inability at the start of the play to strike conversation. This could also be portrayed as a de-sexualisation of a man, who is somewhat nerdy (we totally haven’t seen that trope, have we? ) was certainly a bold and regressive choice; given this, the actors were profoundly moving in the scenes where the emotions were heightened. The emotion didn’t quite land in the final scene, either.

Where this really soared was in the first half, as the energy of Chloe and Jonathan in the dancing scenes was portrayed seamlessly and was quite optimistic. If only the remainder of the piece was focussed on the couple, instead of the Mr Chu/Jonathan plot line which I felt was skindeep.

There are moments of delights, highs, laughs, and genuine heartfelt emotion. What this lacked, for me, was the nuance in all the characters. Further, a plot twist featuring Mr Chu’s son felt contrived (as did the shoehorning of him as a working-class character whose appearance, disappearance and interaction with Jonathan seemed at times unrealistic).

All in all, this is an at-timea affecting piece of theatre, but the effective utilisation of the bodies in the space was sorely mising; hoping for more insight into Mr Chu, but his character felt written too flatly to provoke any real feelings or use.

My final thoughts are that the depiction of a  woman from the diaspora, and a working-class activist were missed off to spend more time with the fact we have to centre the focus on the cis-straight middle class Jonathan (whose writing of a fully rounded character was lacking) also didn’t sit too well with me, and I felt that this was somewhat of a downfall in the over-arching project that had real potential.

If it had been given more time to focus, the play could have set off fireworks over the city; however, this didn’t quite achieve that not want me rushing to pick up a Bola bao either.

** Note: this was a review written in exchange for a complimentary ticket #ad #prinvite, and the opinions in this blog post are only reflective of the reviewer **