By Ambar Madhok, Third Year English
‘Lost Atoms’, playing at the Bristol Old Vic is a love story between Robbie (Joe Layton), and Jess (Hannah Sinclair Robinson), with Anna Jordan’s writing interspersing beautiful ponderings on love within seemingly casual conversations, allowing for an authentic take on the subject. The couple lead seemingly ordinary lives yet it’s hard not to be completely drawn to every interaction they share.
‘Love’s strange, isn’t it? … I swear I can feel it in every cell’
Faced with a deceptively simplistic stage set, we soon learn how this encompasses the world of memory, as the wall of drawers comes alive, revealing items that play a role within Robbie and Jess’s love story.
We are instantly drawn into the couple’s connection through the flowing choreography that sees them travel around the stage, and over the cabinets. The intimacy shared between the couple was beautifully depicted through the seamless sequences of movement throughout, (curated by director Scott Graham), with one truly getting a sense of the playfulness of early love, whilst later switching to more intensity during the seriousness of the relationship; this was depicted. This was most notably presented by the centrepiece which at times opened out to denote a bed suspended in mid-air, where the couple spent their most vulnerable, yet intimate moments with each other.
It was hard not to be transfixed by the characters, with the two allowing one to truly imagine the changing scenery around them when placed in different environments, despite the set not changing, for example, the same two chairs were brilliantly utilised to depict a car, yet later a bench in a hospital waiting room. Andrzej Goulding’s lighting design had a hand in this, along with it working in tandem with Carolyn Downing’s fabulous sound design.
During the interval, there was a sense that nobody wanted to move; the audience was left as intrigued as to the intricacies of the relationship’s trajectory as the two were upon revisiting their collective memory of it. Just as we see Jess learning about the un-sanitised versions of fairy tales, the audience becomes more exposed to the graphic, unfiltered aspects that come with love. It is a play that presents the act of falling in love in such an organic way, yet it also acknowledges how fate and unexpected circumstances are always present and can have a huge impact on fate.
Overall, this is a play definitely worth watching whilst it is on tour. ‘Frantic Assembly’ never fails to create such captivating stories whilst combining movement, lighting and sound within a well written script.
Celebrating ‘Frantic Assembly’s’ 30th Anniversary, ‘Lost Atoms’ is touring the UK, playing in Bristol Old Vic until the 24th of January.
Featured image: Bristol Old Vic / Scott Graham
Will you go and see ‘Lost Atoms’?
