Review: PRISM, Production Lines (Online)
Innovative and thought-provoking, Prism is the latest online play from Edinburgh theatre company Production Lines, written by Claire Wood. Making full use of the interactivity that Zoom technology offers, the play portrays a custody battle and asks the audience to make the all-important final decision. Throughout the performance, questions are raised about memory, identity, and what it means to be a parent.
The play’s setting is a Children’s Hearing, part of the legal and welfare system used in Scotland where panel members make decisions on the future of children. The panel in this instance is, of course, the Zoom audience.
The hearing concerns four-year-old Storm and the three adults who wish to take custody of her: her mother, Natalya, her father, George, and her mother’s PA, Tzeporah. Natalya wants Storm to join her in LA, George wants her to move to his yoga commune in Scotland, and Tzeporah, who has been looking after her since she was a few months old, wants to take her to Switzerland. The panel is presided over by the Convenor, Amadeus.
The audience are encouraged to give opinions through the Zoom chat as to whose testimony we would like to hear, and the Convenor uses the consensus to invite different characters to speak. We get to see two of the characters’ perspectives on each of three events that happened during Storm’s life. These are acted out, with the conversations changing each time depending whose memory we are seeing the event through. It’s an interesting look at how a person’s motives, and perception of themselves, can influence what they remember. One particular character, Tzeporah, even has a completely different accent depending on whose memory she is portraying.
Wood’s script has a definite sense of realism, and the actors do a great job in managing to keep the audience engaged despite portraying some deeply flawed characters. Vanashree Thapliyal gives a sympathetic performance as the beleaguered PA, and Caroline Mathison’s Natalya is particularly arresting, showing very different character traits depending on the time period; she is in turn vapid and shallow, then heartbroken and desperate. Alan Patterson commands attention as the Convenor, making the character funny and charismatic even when the Convenor allows his own feelings to influence the way he treats the petitioners.
Patterson also excels at interacting with the audience, riffing on their comments and often mentioning viewers by name. The audience are given the chance to ask questions, with the actors using improvisation to answer them, and at the end of the performance, the audience are invited to vote on Storm’s fate. The vote can feel a little uncomfortable, but it does give viewers an appreciation of how difficult it must be for those whose jobs regularly require them to make similar decisions on children’s futures, without any guarantee of what the outcome will be.
The use of audience interaction means that each performance of this play will be different, so it’s impressive that it moves along without too many hitches. The show’s Zoom technology is not always seamless, with the occasional character popping up in a scene where they aren’t supposed to be, but generally the concept works well, with solid work from director Ross Hope and technical director Andy Ellis. Different Zoom backgrounds and quick costume changes are used to full effect.
It’s great to see a theatre company exploring what can be done with the online technology available and creating different ways to make the audience feel involved. Prism is both an intriguing family drama and an interesting example of the way that theatre can evolve.
Prism plays online until 5 February, with tickets available here.