York Theatre Royal – 23 February 2017. Reviewed by Marcus Richardson
Narvik is a new play with songs, set in World War Two the the play focuses on a Liverpudlian man and his love for a Norwegian Girl and how their relationship is affected by the war
The performance was set in a black box studio, so as soon as you walked in all the attention was on the set and how they presented the stage, needless to say that I loved the concept of the stage of having an area that resembles a boat however there were some piles that restricted our view from certain scenes and I couldn’t see some of the actors faces at certain points
The acting was very modern with the main character Jim (Joe Shipman) starting out as a 90 year old man ready to die looking for Else (Nina Yndis), which then he goes back to the moment they first meet and it develops their story and creates this world that is torn apart by war. The other actor who played characters, Lucas Smith, became the best friend of Jim whilst he was on the boat and also his father; I have to say I found that he was very good at creating a lot of depth to each character and made sure that you could see the difference between both of them. The three actors were supported by a band of three who were all dressed as sailors in grey overalls and berets, they helped set the scene with sounds being made from the set and sing song that fit into certain scenes.
This was one of the the best productions I had seen in a while, but it was a shame from where I was sat. It started out being rather bland and very same old, but I grew to rather like it, and I loved the end with the great use of how the play plays with time and our perception. I would highly recommend to go and see this show, as it is a great case of new material and new actors
On tour around the UK