Review: 384 DAYS, Pleasance Theatre
The semi-autobiographical 384 Days follows Molly, a patient on a mental ward, tasked with navigating her one year review, with the audience as her jury. She is a young woman of ambiguous age and illness, fighting to stay preppy and functional amid an increasing torrent of rejection and rebuffing, and the play follows the seemingly inevitable descent into her own trauma-warped mind.
348 Days is a one-woman show, and relies entirely on its writer/performer. Megan Ita O’Rourke is dynamic and eye-catching, and is at her best when engaging with the audience, performing Molly’s magic tricks with a knowing enthusiasm and insistence enough to make them land as they might in-world. Some longer monologues occasionally stray over the line of naturalism, robbing more emotional beats of weight as we anticipate the next joke, but the courage of the performance ultimately wins the audience over.
The set is stark and slightly half-realised: sparse and white except for a cluster of cameras in two corners. There’s the nice touch of the window and door being crudely painted on: a childish suggestion of an escape route. In general, there isn’t much to look at, which makes the inclusion of floor-to-ceiling graphics of Molly’s online messaging somewhat jarring. Other characters are voiced off-stage, prompting questions of who is real and who is projection: are her friends really sending her Insta DMs or is that just the voices in her head?
The play, overall, feels a little incomplete: there are many compelling ideas, and a focal point to root for in our protagonist, but her anecdotes don’t always seem relevant, and it feels as if it isn’t sure what it’s trying to say: is the depths of Molly’s illness the revelation? Is it her dark past? Is it that she and others might be safer trapped in a ward? Is it a comment on social media and voluntary vs involuntary surveillance? Towards the final act, it’s difficult to pre-empt what comes next, which keeps the format of a locked room monologue fresh, but could confuse an audience on what they’re supposed to be feeling. This isn’t helped by the run time of over 90 mins from a 9pm start: a slot best reserved for short evening-enders rather than something longer and contemplative like this.
O’Rourke is a powerful and passionate presence, and the more time you spend with her, the more you settle into the rhythm of her personality: whiplashing through childlike obsessiveness to self-aware wry humour. It’s obvious the subject matter is of personal significance to her, especially in the scenes where she enters the audience, imploring us as her review team to let her go home. Unfortunately, like most people important to her, we’re unable to answer her call.
An engaging idea, dynamically performed.
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Oli Burgin
384 Days plays at London’s Pleasance Theatre until 16 October, with further info via the link below:
https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/384-days
Photo credit: Demi Lewis