Posted in: Comics, Current News, Pop Culture | Tagged: Anna Krauze, Camden Fringe, Coral Tarran, James Georgiou, london, theatre, we can be heroes

Review: We Can Be Heroes by Anna Krauze, a Thunderbolt of a New Play

Review: We Can Be Heroes by Anna Krauze and Coral Tarran, with James Georgiou, at Lion And Unicorn Theatre, part of London's Camden Fringe

We Can Be Heroes is a new production that premiered last night at the Lion & Unicorn theatre, above the Lion & Unicorn pub between Camden and Kentish Town, as part of the Camden Fringe. Written by Anna Krauze, performed by Anna Krauze and recent addition James Georgiou, and directed by Coral Tarran, it begins with Anna on stage under an umbrella as the sounds of rain and thunder crackle around her ten minutes before the play begins. We sit, we watch, looking up through the transparent brolly, waiting, waiting, waiting until the sun eventually shines. The water is still all around, but there is now hope.

Krauze tells us she is an actress, who writes her own stuff to perform. This is true, but a fictional line in the sand must be drawn, so she suggests a variety of names for herself before settling on Peanut. Which is when we meet her brother, in the audience. Which, last night, saw the actual audience figure dip from double to single fingers. Which, to be fair, is around the same audience numbers I have seen the very best works of theatre.

Right now, so much of the small, interesting theatre in London… is in Edinburgh. As are many of the Londoners who would go to see it. What that does mean, for this play above a pub, and one that will likely be in Edinburgh next year, if what the cast are saying outside the pub is true, is right now, today and tomorrow, easier to get to see. You will not have to rush for tickets. Just get yourself to Camden or Kentish Town tonight. Or tomorrow night. And you should.

But why, especially, for a Bleeding Cool audience? Well, superhero fiction is often about making subtext into text. Finding people's desires, their doubts, their lack of self-belief and turning them into superpowers to play them out for the characters and wish fulfilment for the audience. We Can Be Heroes is, instead, taking the concept of the superhero, the wish to be more, and making it subtext again.

So the play revolves around the brother and sister, the brother having issues related to depression and autism, though never expressed in words. Georgiou jumps from overblown to underblown, often from sentence to sentence; he is both child and sage, knowing so much and so little and not having the tools to join the dots. I understand he joined the production relatively recently, but he is convincingly a whole character on stage. And Peanut, devoted to him but trying to live her own life, Krauze portrays a woman who goes far, does much, and writes herself into performing very effective scenes that may be seen as degrading for an actress if she hadn't written them for herself to perform, but is always leashed. He wants to be a superhero, she wants to play a superhero, if only for her brother, if only for his memory. We learn early on that he dies, and her life is either in his shadow or in his spotlight.

Superhero stories are often about yearning, the desire to make a difference, and one that is granted. Wishes are fulfilled, and destinies are reached despite all the struggles. This is about… the yearning, but also the fear of getting what you once wanted. And how those fears are manifest until, right at the very end… unexpectedly, a wish is indeed fulfilled. It even gets rubbed in the nose of those who doubted it.

Also, in common with all superhero fiction, there is a massive black hole of missing parents. One tiny mention of a mother at the beginning and… there is a complete absence, with only a few dodgy uncles to accommodate, until the funeral, and even then, it's a presence of absence that impacts most.

Anna Krauze also plays two other women in her brother's life which he meets once, a sex worker and a nun, but who are both impacted by him in a way they would not expect, by this thunderbolt of a young man who cannot find a place. It underlines why, as the sister, she is so taken with him but also suggests a sexuality between the two that gets rejected and repulsed elsewhere. It's just very complex and a counterpoint to the simplicities her brother sees life in terms of cowboys, doctors, superheroes and comic book shops.

But in all that, there is fear. How being scared both stymies people and can also fuel extraordinary abilities. These simplistic superheroic figures prop up the idea of what masculinity is defined by in society, in family, and in life, but it is unachievable by so many, fuelling self-doubt and self-criticism. Otherwise known as men catching up with the women, now.

The play is fuelled by the energy and optimism of the characters. When they are together, they regress to simpler times. They are funny and fun, but it gets much more serious when they are apart. The stage uses simple props: chairs, toy trains and a sheet that becomes both a cape and a tent. The detritus of childhood follows them as adults. The audience wants them to get back together again, before and after death. One may be a thunderbolt, but the other is lightning.

We Can Be Heroes is on for two more nights, tonight and tomorrow.  But sit at the very front, you will be tossing a tennis ball, a great way to focus a monologue. Be warned. I came across the play's existence yesterday afternoon and just decided to go, knowing nothing. You, at the very least, now know something. And so have no excuse not to. Unless, of course, you're in Edinburgh, I guess..

We Can Be Heroes

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Review by Rich Johnston

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8/10

Superhero fiction is often about making subtext into text. Finding people's desires, their doubts, their lack of self-belief and turning them into superpowers to play them out for the characters and wish fulfilment for the audience. We Can Be Heroes is, instead, taking the concept of the superhero, the wish to be more, and making it subtext again.

Credits

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Author

Anna Krauze

Actor

Anna Krauze

Actor

James Georgiou

Director

Coral Tarran

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