WW Reviews

Anna/Anastasia follows the story of Anna who believes herself to be Anastasia Romanov; we discover through the play that she keeps jumping off a bridge in Germany and the same police officer interviews her.

The play was much funnier than I thought it would be which was balanced with emotional moments. Chris Forbes and excellent direction really added to the humour of the piece. The police officer had a Scottish accent which helped the play connect with a local Glasgow audience.

To denote the passage of time the set was moved by the actors in highly stylised and choreographed movements but it was moved so slowly that it could have easily been mistaken for a joke and it took me out of the piece.

It would have been easy to fall into the trap of creating a romance between the two characters but this never happened and the play was much better for it. Not having a romance made the play feel as though they were leaning away from tropes and instead focusing on the characters and their individual personalities rather than the two characters as a pair. The costumes really reflected both characters and the state of their mental health in each scene.

The play didn’t feel as focused on mental health or explore the affects Anna’s mental health was having on her life or her family and friends. I also felt that the death of the Romanovs was played for laughs but they were real people. Whilst they died a long time ago I still didn’t feel comfortable with laughing at their deaths; I wondered if I would feel the same about real people who had died even further back.

Overall, the play was interesting with some funny moments but did not explore enough of Anna’s life for an in depth look at the character or mental health in general.

Performance:
Saturday 5th October 2024
13:00
Oran Mor

Written by: Jonny Donahoe
Directed by: Liz Carruthers

Cast:

Photography by: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan