The Turbine Theatre, Battersea – until 27 January 2024
Reviewed by: Ava Clarkson
5*****
Rita Lynn is written and performed by the brilliant Louise Marwood (Emmerdale, Coronation Street, The Bill) and is a one-woman show on an epic scale. Directed by Nick Bagnall, with guest voices throughout, this play holds you captivated for 70 minutes and as you are carried along in Rita Lynns world – you forget there is just one person on stage.
The Turbine Theatre in the Battersea Power Station complex is the perfect setting for the play. A small and intimate venue under the arches of the railway line which seats just 92. The play is interrupted by the rumble of the trains above, but this does not distract, but adds to the ambience. The stage is a black square with nothing but a chair, an old-fashioned telephone and white powder in lines which decorate the floor.
There is no introduction, no brash entrance, the lights abruptly go down and Louise walks on stage. The plot follows Imogen Wood, an ex-dancer and full-blown drug addict, in the height of her addiction, fueled by a toxic boyfriend who enables and encourages her drug use. We see Imogen stumble into a situation where she convinces a wealthy housewife she is in fact a Life Coach called Rita Lynn, with unorthodox methods. Louise never leaves the stage, but we are cleverly transported to other venues – a bathroom, a house, a support group, where using music and piped voices, the plot and her life unravels in front of us. We “meet” her lover Dexter, her drag queen best friend Melian, her boyfriend’s son Buddy and her client Helen – all without another person entering the stage.
The play is funny in parts and heart breaking and hard to watch in others. You appreciate the suffering Imogen is going through and her wish every day to end her drug abuse and at times her life. The music used is superb and fits the venue and the plot. The lighting and use of the stage is hypnotic, and you cannot take your eyes off Imogen (aka Rita Lynn) for 70 very quick minutes.
As Louise is an ex-addict herself and very new to recovery, this feels even more raw and real. Louise says – “You know when you throw something really important away by accident?… I did this with my life” and this is portrayed magnificently in front of our very eyes. You can see the emotion and pain on her face, the tears flow as does the manic laughter.
Then it is over – no big encore, no huge finale – this is the end of the story. Louise leaves the stage, and we are left slightly shocked and amazed at what we have just watched. As Louise bravely says – “I lived and breathed this and my soul is in these pages. Reliving it is hard and triggering. I am very new in recovery so it’s quite a bold move to talk about my drug of choice so much and in some ways glamorise it, the way she does”.
I left this play with a newfound understanding of the chaotic mind of an addict. I felt the emotion portrayed, I willed the character to break the cycle she was in, I gulped back tears and laughed loudly throughout. This play is a must see – I played it over in my mind all evening and I know it will stay with me for days.