Finborough 2021

Was in their last email

'During lockdown, we have built back better. Literally. The Finborough building was purchased earlier this year by entrepreneur and property investor Jason Collins – who has been and continues to be hugely supportive of the theatre. During the past six months, the entire building has been extensively renovated and refurbished. We now boast an entirely new roof which will end the water leaks which made backstage life a misery; the staircase to the theatre has been transformed including the addition of a stunning skylight; all the windows in the theatre have been completely replaced with double glazing, substantially reducing noise from the street during performances; and our electrics have been upgraded and replaced, with the support of The Theatres Trust, enabling us to be far more ambitious in the future with the technical needs of our productions. We are also very happy to report that a new management for the pub will shortly be announced, and that the pub’s disabled toilet will be fully reinstated.'    

How to Survive an Apocalypse

I do like a Sunday matinee and I like the Finborough Theatre a lot. The pub downstairs is very closed for refurbishment. I'm not sure why, it never seemed to me to need a refurb but anyways. There are FOH staff at the pub doors directing people to a little newsagents around the corner where you can get a drink to bring in.

Inside, the redone stairs up etc look clean and crisp and very bright - the only visible signs of the work that had been done.

As the Finborough is not going at full capacity, it's hard to say if it was full or otherwise. There were somewhere around 30 people I'd say, there was comfortable space around me.

The programme has a short essay about survivalism and preppers which should set the scene for the play... but then turns out to be pretty irrelevant as we are actually watching a romcom with some passing and mostly unexplored comments about being prepared for the end of the world. It does allow for the genuinely very funny line that 'the apocalypse will not be gluten free' - occasionally the script is very witty and entertaining.

The cast are all good and all get good moments however each of them seem hampered by the need to do a strong/broad Canadian accent. It isn't help at times by the default seeming to be LOUD voices which felt like a little too much in such a small space. I understand the play and playwright, Jordan Hall, is Canadian but there are maybe two or three references in the text to Canada and they are really just throwaway lines. I have to think it could have done with being transplanted or simply allowing the cast their own accents. In particular there are points where the play has all four characters just shouting at each other and I thought the accents really detracted there. In the quieter moments and the wordless scenes there is a much stronger glimpse of the talent in the cast.

The set and sound is great and as ever the Finborough Theatre shine at this, with the simple middle of the room set working as a home, an office and then a forest for a camping trip.