Zoo Playground
1st – 24th Aug (20:15)
We all love a bit of Country Music, don’t we? Some obsessionally, some just bits & bobsy; but it’s impossible not to recognise, when you hear the genre’s traditional beat, twanging guitar, & crooning tales of love & rodeos. So, to Midnight In Nashville, & a stage pregnant with a keyboard & acoustic guitar. Also present on stage is the tale’s chief protagonist, Marcy Aurora, play’d by Kentucky-born / London-based Biz Lyon.
Midnight in Nashville is all about one woman’s dedication to her craft, who once play’d to stadiums of 50,000 adoring people, her breasts vibrating to the bass, & was interviewed by Opera, Letterman, & even Barbara Walters. A serious pedigree. But something happen’d (spoiler alert) which took her out of the game, let’s say, & by the time-strata of the play she is hell-bent on making a come-back after twenty years.
Biz Lyon gives a guttural & naked performance as Marcy, whose activities take place mainly in the recording studio; Shania Twaining here, Hank Williamsing there, with the process being urg’d on by a woman standing behind the audience with a microphone. This woman also provides the chief sub-plot of the play, in relation to the bad thing that happened 20 years ago, from which spiritus are utter’d the immortal words;
You know what’s funny, I liked a lot about prison –
I slept in shittier beds on the road
Midnight In Nashville is a blend of music & words – with the script, I found, being of a higher standard than the music itself, which leads to the flow enduring a certain disjointedness. However, Marcy is an entertaining watch, & altogether I was witnessing well-tuned acting to a well-tuned script. As Marcy darted from chord to chord, lifting up lilting lyric after lilting lyric, & all under the dark shadow of a haunted past, I found myself being suck’d into the vision of her personal hopes for the future. Good luck Marcy & all the Marcy’s like her across the world!
Damo
themumble.uk 