THEATRE REVIEW: Fall Out ★★★

Fall Out
Birmingham Mac Theatre
Tuesday 11th October 2016

What I love about theatre is how it can transport you to another place, town, country, world almost, depending on the production you are watching. With Fall Out, Highly Sprung’s latest production, we are immersed in a environmental theatrical treat as we follow the lives of Annie and Will, childhood friends who are college students, and how the introduction of Jay, a new student at the college, affects Annie and Will's friendship.

The dynamic and chemistry between the performers on stage was electrifying from start to finish. Claire Lambert and Luke Sheppard are believable as Annie and Will, making the friendship on stage seem genuine, and ultimately making the journey with them compelling, almost feeling like we have known these characters our own lives.

Ashley Jordan is the perfect actor to rival Annie and Wills friendship as Jay, and myself as an audience member went through so many feelings about what I thought about the character, because the script works so perfectly at making Jay a fully rounded character that we are so driven to find out more about him.

I state this because this performance was fresh and innovative, but most importantly relatable; I'm certain everyone who watches this production will know a Annie, Will & Jay in their lives, or know someone else who does. Mark Worth, the writer of Fall Out, has put together a script that is very mundane, your average love story, but makes it so compelling that when the real subject matter comes to light later in the production, Worth manages to slap us in the face with reality and the real world around us, with a situation that we hear about going on every day of our lives, and this is what makes Mark Worth’s script riveting.

The dance and acrobatic sequences that take place in Club Red, the main portions of this production, are sharp and really complete this experience, as they show so much emotion to the characters on stage, feeling like we completely understand the feelings that Will is going through having mysterious Jay enter Annie's life.

Overall, Fall Out was thought-provoking, hard hitting at times, but most importantly highlighted a serious matter that is relevant, and is the reason why I believe Fall Out is one of the most moving pieces of theatre there is out there currently, and why I won't forget about this production for a long time!