Written by John Kolvenback

Review by Harri Dimdore-Miles

Dairy Room at Underbelly, Bristo Square

‘Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight is less a piece of theatre and more a group experience or calling. It forces the audience out of the role of passive consumer of art, into active participant and creator. No one in the room is invisible to actor Jim Ortlieb as he moves around the room peering into the soul of crowd members when he delivers poetic anecdotes, orchestrates synchronized clapping and re-enacts deep memories.

This may sound like a crazed muddle of pantomime, spoken word and theatre, and in a sense it is. On the surface that likely sounds like a horrific concoction – but ‘Stand up if you’re here tonight’ is nothing of the sort. It is a unique and bold attempt to do something different with a stage and make the audience feel something in themselves, that many non-interactive shows fail too. The show is about humanity, unanimous experiences and in part loss. Though those themes don’t present themselves through plot, rather through mediums of question asking, audience participation, poetry and monologue. The show takes a minute to warm up and for the intellect of writer John Kolvenbach’s creation to unfold, but by the time you leave you feel invigored by what you just got to experience. It is an ode to sonder, one that engages you in the question of what it is to be human and to be a part of group a group of humans in the same room.

Jim Ortlieb gives a stellar performance and is so clearly the right man for the job. He has the perfect softness to slowly open up the crowd and get them ready to receive the words he is uttering at them. The show takes a real risk – especially with a British audience who are famously susceptible to cringe and putting themselves out there. Ortlieb however aids Kolvenbachs vision in coming to life and the results are genuinely moving.

Whilst the feats this show achieves are impressive, at points it lacked a specificness that might give the audience a distinct point to come away with. It was warm and open and sentimental, but sometimes vague, covering too many ideas. For the more hardened brits in the audience, it may feel like sentiment for sentiments sake. The writing and delivery create a rare buzz in the room which could perhaps be more powerfully wielded towards one more tangible theme present in the show. With what they’ve created they uniquely have the audience like putty in their hands. A show that is truly challenging to put into words – go and see it!

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