Below you will find a review by Gemma Hirst, taken from the wonderful Juice Festival blog
Juice Festival’s Indiana Jones and the Extra Chair at Live Theatre – Sat 3 Nov, 6pm
I had had my lunch earlier on in the day, so naturally I was hungry for something a little bit different and boy did I get it at Live Theatre. I walked in to a whole new dining experience, sat down to a table and was served a starter of poetry servings performed by young writers. Each of the poems were inspired by their own family gatherings, I was particularly greedy and had a tasters from Steven Blackshaw, Ryan Watson and Reece Connolly.
I really enjoyed Stevens’ originality of giving us packages at which I was excited about until I opened it and found it was custard cream a nice change to the tuna sandwich I was eating at the time.
I felt physically sick listening to Ryan’s poem of becoming a man, laying a piece of comedy poo on the table, not sure if I really understood it as there was lot of background noise, I found it difficult to hear him at times. Reece Connolly’s performance, a poem about his family Christmas experiences made me laugh; it was a party popper rather than pooper that put me in the festive spirit.
After a short interval and some more potato salad, it was time for the main course and thank god I had room because I was nearly full from the all starters. Indiana Jones & The Extra Chair, written and performed by Simon Mole, a poem no a story that dappled in the culinary arts of spoken word theatre. I sat tight and watched and listened as Simon put on a character as Mike who was dealing with his toughest adventure meeting his mum’s new boyfriend and on top of that poor Mike was in the middle of his own relationship crisis.
I truly enjoyed the main course and no salt and pepper was needed. It was simple setting yet that was all that was needed as Simon Mole’s performance of Mike was outstanding. Mike would imagine himself as Indiana Jones, like he was the metaphor for the perfect man; the man that he wanted to me to prove to his mother that she didn’t need this new boyfriend. Hats off the chef Simon, his performance was cleverly written. It delved deep into the real life situations that families have whilst sitting around a dinner table. Simon Mole has an eye for the overlooked and this performance was moving and well observed. I felt that I could truly relate to his piece.
After that fulfilling main course I could just about squeeze in some delightful dessert which was tiramisu, talked about the main ingredients of an interesting family meal. Finished my lemonade off I had enjoyed my night of Indiana Jones and the Extra Chair, now where can I leave my tip?
Indiana Jones and the extra chair 