Ties is Directed by Moira Anne McAuslan

Blackout is Directed by Chris McCulloch

Time to Wake Up is directed by Peter Dobre

A rising achievement from Glasgow-based theatre company Solar Bear, Wake Up is a successful venture with a trilogy of plays developed through its Make a Change Programme, specifically to hone and develop the craft of d/deaf talents and experiment with creative concepts. As such, none of the three plays’ have a traditional writing credit to accompany them, with the director and performers constructing the core performances which focus on visual storytelling and movement – with Jonathan Lloyd providing dramaturgy to the whole production, providing a guiding arc even with such different narratives.

Serving a smorgasbord of dark, humorous, heartfelt – hell, the entire spectrum of the human condition, the showcase kicks off with Moira Anne McAuslan’s Ties, a sentimental and touching piece on memory as a woman looks back at her wartime romance, youthful ventures, and marriage. While Craig McCulloch directs Blackout, a ludicrously farcical and dark thrilled about a man who awakens to find he’s sharing a flat with a corpse – a brilliantly comedic two-hander from McCulloch and Connor Bryson who stumbles the fray of things.

Almost entirely silent, there is a scene-constructing sound design from Rob Willoughby that serves to bridge the gap for hearing members of the audience – where it’s best utilised in the closing piece Time to Wake Up, which is also the strongest of the trio pieces. It’s a one-hander, performed by Romanian performer Petre Dobre as a man who falls asleep watching the television, while mindlessly cycling (and ignoring) the various news reports on the climate crisis unfolding outside the window. It dispenses with Jenny Booth’s effective staging, which has thus far been manipulated and shifted with ease to allow space and shape for each show.

But in Time to Wake Up, Dobre utilises the emptiness of the Studio to unfurl a turbulent journey from the birth of the earth to the eruption of volcanos and lush greenery and flung into the harrowing future under the catastrophe of the climate crisis. A staggeringly effective mime and physical performer, aided by Kai Fischer’s lighting and video projection, Dobre contorts and utilises their entire shape into telling an engaging, eye-catching tale with weight and a worryingly accurate sense of fatalism.

With an equal, though differing form of weight, Anne McAuslan’s Ties has the most heart-wrenching and traditional flow of narrative and storytelling. And the impact thumps from the start – constructed with such a clear visual dynamic, with multiple ties of varying shades and shapes and tones to tie (get it?) directly into the history of the young woman who has buried loved ones, in a strikingly impactful grave constructed of black ties, and their journey through life sparked by looking at a picture inside a box of memories.

Performed by Connor Bryson and Claire Wetherall, the story of this young couple’s venture through love, war, and loss skirts the edges of snapshots of their lives, using the tie motif to link the stories together. McAuslan themselves takes on supporting roles as audiences whizz from dance halls to the battlefield. It unfurls into a powerfully connective show which encourages us to see the past in the present, to see those who may have left us in for the lives they led, rather than who they became.

Sandwiched between, the much-needed grim humour of Blackout offers a refreshing use of movement and physical comedy that takes a slower pace to remove a body following a rather hefty drinking session from the previous night. Bryson returns for this piece as the hapless friend, brought into the mix as they and McCulloch try all sorts to hide the body – performed by a stuffed duffle coat. It’s a quant piece, which works brilliantly to offset the intensity of the previous and following stories – and the slapstick humour brings enjoyment for the audience in the pair’s facial expressions. Its somewhat repetitive and cyclical storytelling begins to wear thin but finds itself with a smart conclusion to keep audiences guessing.  

Striking at differing genres and methods, Wake Up serves as a superb showcase of accessible talents throughout the runtime. It stokes various emotions and connections with its versatile storytelling, which all come together for a terrifically appreciative ninety-odd minutes of diverse and creative ingenuity.