Here is a review from Carole Carpenter on the Nasty Sweets production 'The Thingumywotsit' at The New Wimbledon Theatre, which we told you about recently .
The show was quite a departure from previous Nasty Sweets productions, in terms of more maturity, less 'silly' humour (not that I am dissing silliness, which definitely has its place), more stillness, intensity and eeriness. It followed the tradition of classic Sci Fi where a scenario is set up in which a group of people are trapped, with the menace of some unknown 'thing' which we don't ever necessarily see - the drama is in our fear of the unknown, (which is always going to be scarier than someone in a silly costume or an animated monster in a film) and in watching how those people deal with the situation, interact, mistrust each other and crack under the strain. There was a brilliant episode of Dr Who called Midnight which did something similar - group of passengers trapped on a mysterious planet, a sinister knocking on the door and then an entity arriving amongst them by taking on the body of a passenger, it did not menace the others in an obvious way but whose presence caused huge mistrust and unrest to the point that social structures broke down and were replaced by mob rule. Simple, uncomplicated, eery.
Structurally I thought perhaps it took a tad too long to really get going - because once it did it was glorious and the second half of it, once everything was established and the suspicion was in full swing was great.
I enjoyed the use of walkie talkies and the Tannoy to suggest the world outside. I was particularly intrigued by the way the Tannoy was used and how this developed throughout, going from mundane announcements about amusingly named shops, to warnings about lockdown and oxygen deficiency. Reminiscent of a ship's computer and also slightly Big Brother, as well. I did genuinely care about the characters and also found it quite challenging in terms of narrative structure, so was very pleasantly surprised with the simplicity of the format.
Loved the silly moments when they did occur - they were all the better for having really been 'earned' by all the straighter stuff beforehand. I thought the balance of 'in jokes' for Nasty Sweets aficionados and film geeks and an accessible show that was complete and funny in its own right was spot on. People could definitely enjoy it on different levels and it wasn't self indulgently 'in jokey'. The references could definitely be enjoyed (and rightly so) but the show stood up in its own right. In fact there was even a sense at times that the guys were mocking their own film referencing and geek-out credentials with the whole business about Gareth being so clueless about films and actors, overt discussions about specific films, and mickey taking about each other's film preferences. Which I very much enjoyed.
This review was sent into us ,feel free to let us know here about anything you have seen or bought.
For all things Thingumywotsit check out www.nastysweets.com
