Dumped. The Show.
London. Camden People’s Theatre.
Good plays / shows need time for digestion (sorry Emily for taking time for this!)
The actress and comedian Emily Howarth has penned a brilliant feminist piece, although it can very well be understood by the other gender as well (if they’ve been dumped by their loved one). This is not a sappy story about being dumped and crying about it for the rest of your life. This is not one of those sappy Danielle Steele pieces that just makes the reader so sick and sweetened at the same time. This is a story about hope and survival. This is a story about music coming to your rescue.
Emily speaks to the deepest corners of the soul. Metaphors are brought to life (it starts with the actress sitting in an actual bin after having been dumped). Metaphor? Yes, surely! - my inner linguist will scream minutes into the show.
The real beauty and the secret of the high acclaim and a very good and warm reception of the show is Emily’s skill to play on the spectator’s heart strings. She sucks you deep within the story and you have no other choice than just make parallels with your own life. Emily is very specific (as an actress, I can vouch how important being specific is to a success of any show).
Listen to break-up songs. They might seem sappy and what-else-not, but they are quite powerful. Dance your pain out. Improvise. Pretend you are the Taylor Swift yourself and just sing your pain away! The effect will just surprise you. Not only they can tell you your life story (your teary story at the time), they will also make sure you keep breathing and, consequently, move on. Spit on him (or her, or whoever the person who betrayed you was).
Emily was abandoned, even spat over in Singapore. Not her home country. Not they country she lived in, either. Hence, not a familiar territory at all. Listening to this, just reminded me of my time in Saudi Arabia. Later on, he will be accusing me for breaking his heart and stepping all over his heart and crushing it into pieces. The moment he was asking for my permission to get another woman that I decided - this is done, I am going back to Europe. Does that make me a heartbreaker? Clearly, no. That very question had broken my heart (Emily had recorder several heart-wrenching, teary voice-memos, I had a notebook where I had written everything down. In Latvian - so he does not accidentally read it all. i kept them all at work, though. I was the one who run, yes, but the damage was done weeks ago with the painful question. I was not the runner. I was the one made to go and return.
Emily will shine. Whenever the show is on in some festivals, make sure you check it out and it is well worth it, and I can assure you - you will also learn something about yourself, and will even help you to finally move on.!
