Review: THE ARMS, The Old Net Loft Theatre
The Arms is a two-women (and multitudinous arms) show featuring striking set design, props and costume choices, bold acting scenes and a daring script. The play does not neatly fit into a genre box, which is part of the beauty of Fringe theatre, but perhaps is best described as a comedy laced with horror and sprinkled with dystopia, making it an addictive watch. The Arms is a surrealist piece of theatre that explores the connection between two neighbours with startlingly different worldviews; featuring neighbour Domi who decides to create extra arms to attach to her body in order to help her do more for her community, transforming her into an eight-armed woman, which visually comes as a shock to neighbour Sora (and perhaps the audience too!)
Moon Kim is the writer and director of this show, as well as founder of Moon Kim Theatre Company who are previously known for successful surrealist pieces The Waiting Room (2024) and Emma or Emily (2023). The Arms brings a new friendly and talented production team together who each bring their own personality to the stage through set, costume, music and more, working closely and collaboratively together to bring Moon’s vision to life in such a highly electric way; that has led to it being shortlisted for the Best New Show Award at the Brighton Fringe.
As audiences enter the Old Net Loft theatre space, what is most immediately striking is the mise-en-scène, scattered with a beautiful array of paper mâché props. The Arms is the winner of the Bird & Blend SustainabiliTEA bursary due to set and costumes being made from recycled and compostable materials, an impressive feat that speaks closely to the environmental themes of the show. Elaina Fielding is the sculptor within the production team, bringing experimental talent and crafty creative licence, which turns the idea of first walking into the theatre into an experience highly similar to walking into an art installation. Besides the props, that breathe life and meaning into the heart and soul of the show, other visual elements such as costume design blend excellently with the rest of Moon’s vision, using cohesive colour palettes to instantly highlight the similarities and differences between the two lead characters of the show.
A memorable moment from the show are the several movement sequences, quirkily choreographed by the directorial team Moon Kim and Tess Murison, and brought to life by actors Carolina Emidio and Rosalind Jackson Roe. These movement sequences articulate moments when the two neighbours start spying on each other and occur in sync, using catchy and repetitive bodily movements creating an edgy and experimental moment supported by Ábel M.G.E’s carefully curated sound design. It is moments like these that the whole cast and crew truly work together as a cohesive company, and when this happens the energy onstage just explodes.
Carolina Emidio (Sora) and Rosalind Jackson Roe (Domi) are both highly skilled actors who really bring added depth and meaning to the way their characters have been written. They really know how to win an audience over, through physicality and vocality which is always clear and well considered. Their moments of heightened acting when the two neighbours were most at odds with each other are passionate and full of fury, demanding agency over the stage and audience alike.
The beautiful nature of such an experimental script is that audiences can project multiple interpretations onto the material, making it highly relevant and personal yet simultaneously incredibly bizarre and abstract. Some of the most potent themes that stood out to me include our relationship to social media, bodily agency, policing one’s actions, activism and identity, with the play’s core theme of coexistence stitching a neat thread through all of these ideas.
The Arms is an experimental new piece of surrealist theatre filled with clever attention to detail, highly relevant in its thematic choices.
***** Five Stars
Reviewed by Heidi Downing