Review: Vessel at Camden People’s Theatre

Wednesday, 23rd August at Camden People’s Theatre, London.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Reviewer: Joe Marshall

VESSEL, the latest output of Oxford-based company ‘Dawn Productions’, rounded up its three-week national tour in Camden last week to a near sold-out audience at the Camden People’s Theatre. It’s an ambitious production, with a clear point of view in driving wider awareness about each person’s relationship with food and their bodies.

The company rather cryptically describes VESSEL as a “quasi-verbatim theatrical anthology”, which reflects its basis in 128 survey contributions from the public, who wrote of their personal relationships with food. With this as a stimulus, VESSEL comprises of a number of scenes, where the characters explore their relationship with food and their bodies in romantic settings, in parent-child dynamics, in schools, by themselves, and so on.

The script, written by Grace Olusola, is cutting and often firmly relatable. Thoughts and feelings that many of us will have experienced in our relationships with food, even those that might previously have been subconscious, were articulated well through the play, thanks to the writing and actors’ deliveries.

I particularly enjoyed the scene where a comedian character delivers a self-deprecating routine about herself as the ‘fat one’ in her friendship group, which served as an impactful commentary on humour about weight and appearance. The strong performance and script here made the audience unsure of whether to laugh or not at – or with? – the character. It wasn’t comfortable viewing, and for that it was powerful.

The weaker moments were those which felt less authentic and genuine, with over-elevated performances and ideas in certain scenes diluting the overall messages of the play, in favour of playing to the audience. As opposed to the melodrama of these scenes, subtle approaches in others had a greater effect. One such example explored the unintentional transference of a parent’s troubled attitude towards weight and appearance passing onto her child; this was quiet in presentation, but loud in its impact.

VESSEL is at its best when it presents a more realist exploration of its ideas about food and body image. It often hits the mark, and so the production succeeds in its mission to engage with ideas that its audiences care about, and are affected by. Make sure to keep an eye out for the company’s next production.

Images: Michael-Akolade Ayodeji