The Author

Published Wednesday 30 September 2009 at 15:15 by Aleks Sierz

When I took my seat to watch Tim Crouch’s engaging and experimental new play, the young woman sitting next to me started chatting. Knowing that the show involves audience participation, I immediately tensed up. Was she an actor? Was this a trap?

Partly a meditation on going to the theatre, and partly a satire on the typical Royal Court play of the past ten years, the evening starts off with Adrian Howells talking to audience members about the experience of going to see a play. Gradually, Tim Crouch - The Author’s author - joins in, and starts outlining his fictional experience of staging a play about violent sexual abuse.

Vic Llewellyn, who plays the abuser, and Esther Smith, who plays his young victim, take up the story. Slowly, it becomes clear that the process of staging a shocking and disgusting play has taken its toll on author, cast and audience alike. With a deft touch, Crouch reminds us of the risks of live performance, and questions the traditional division between performers and spectators.

Bringing in some extremely disturbing material, from images of beheadings to a story about child abuse, Crouch demonstrates how theatre happens more in our heads than on stage. Sitting among the audience, which is ranged in two banks facing each other, the cast begin slightly awkwardly but soon settle into their roles, switching from direct address to fully convincing acting.

It turned out that my neighbour was an acting student, studying at East 15. She wasn’t in the cast, but The Author is the kind of show where you really must mention the contribution of the audience, who frequently join in, and, of course, this is her first mention in a review.