Many Sevenoaks students had seen Idle Motion’s previous show last term, The Vanishing Horizon and were wondering whether The Seagull Effect would achieve a similar level of creative, physical theatre. It most certainly did. This new production highlighted that the company had grown in experience and built upon the strength of their earlier work, to offer an even more spectacular show.

The Seagull Effect was based on the famous 1987 South East storms. Detailed research about the nature of the weather and the story of the storm itself was combined with the central narrative of a couple, reunited by chance after an acrimonious break up, in their old flat during the storm. The play attempts to raise our awareness of the significance of the weather - its patterns, chaos and how small changes can have catastrophic effects. This is then compared to our own lives, how paths are crossed and trod, and how tiny changes and decisions can be extremely influential. As the storm hits the south coast and the couple struggle to renegotiate their relationship (they clash, fight, make love) we are told ‘in order to understand a storm you need to go back to where it began’. We are reminded that our own lives mirror the chaos of the weather.

The production employed very clever use of film projection including historical highlights from now to 1987. Natural disasters and well-known political events were projected onto a back canvas but also caught on groups of umbrellas or even actors' bodies. The umbrellas disrupt our perspective of these images to increase the sense of chaos and remind us how history is like the weather. As the performance continues, fragments of props, costume, projection and dialogue both connect and distort to underline how the weather, nature and all of us are interconnected: the weather is more than a mere trivial aspect to your day.

The narrator, Grace Chapman, was thoroughly engaging and built a real connection with the audience. She broke the fourth wall in a natural manner and continuously involved the audience keeping them enticed throughout the one hour blast of dynamics. The audience were made to wonder about all those insignificant moments, such as how you had got to your seat, and how these things can trigger a whole sequence of events that turns into something huge. The woman, played by Sophie Cullen, and the man, actor Alex Kearley-Shiers, provided an on-going plot as a base for all the chaotic snippets of different stories. Their story was intense and cleverly linked to the weather.

The tightly-knit ensemble prepared various imaginative and powerful moments that really entranced the audience. The manipulation of white umbrellas as unified objects repeatedly throughout the performance was executed with choreographic skill and engaging to watch. A particular highlight was when the woman stood at the doorstep opposite the man in the rain, holding her umbrella. The rest of the ensemble used a watering can to pour water over her umbrella like rain and catch the droplets in another umbrella underneath. It was carefully crafted moments like these that the audience found so engaging and enhanced the impact of a specific scene, which imprinted on your memory. Furthermore the cast maintained the mood of the performance even through the transition of scenes by making it fluid and ‘moving with the wind’. There were no blackouts – scenes melted, evolved or overlapped. The ensemble were almost dancing, allowing our minds no time to break from the intensity of their performance. This production not only met our expectations but exceeded them.

The play ends with the perspective that storms are in fact a creative force – part of an interconnected cycle which lead to something new. Just like the production, with its creative chaos, its fluid movement and images, its rapid manipulation and changing of costumes and props, which all left a lasting effect once the stage was still and the house lights came back on. Although the woman walks out on her former partner at the end, there is a positive sense that at the very least, they have achieved some form of closure and can move on with their lives (indeed the optimists in the audience believed he would follow her).

The company started off as fellow students of a Theatre Studies class at school who reunited after their different degree courses with a hunger to make theatre. Over the last four years they have turned themselves into an emerging company that create striking and memorable theatre. They still perform at the Edinburgh Fringe, where last summer, the run of one of their shows sold out completely before the first night. Their work has also been selected as part of the British Council’s showcase. This hard-grafting and talented company have huge potential and it was a real delight and privilege to see them perform at our school.

Polly Young