Gaynor O’Flynn has written and performs in this one-woman show explaining her career trajectory through biographical testimonials from friends. O’Flynn’s simple storytelling is clear and concise with a personal delivery but the fragmented monologue plateaus with no climax or plot twist.
Time is the product of O’Flynn’s experience of her MA at RADA, where she felt she wasn’t being taken seriously as a mature student; a woman in her fifties with an already-existing impressive CV behind her. What’s clear from her monologue is that O’Flynn’s work ethic driving change and challenging injustices are highly commendable.
O’Flynn shares her story largely through projecting avatars onto a black curtain. The various avatars represent friends she has met along her journey from music festivals where she has performed to colleagues at the BBC. Oddly, she narrates the testimonials autobiographically in the form of a voice-over, whilst the avatars perform a smokescreen to hide the fact we are in the dark listening to some audio.
The testimonials are interesting, many of the now-successful characters describe O’Flynn as ‘fierce’ and share how impressed they were of her ability to ‘flow’. The production, however, seems to lack a flowing nature. Each testimonial is connected through a bizarre sound cue of someone monotonously saying the word “time” in what appears to be a highly echoey chamber, as O’Flynn finishes her present excerpt and moves to and from the black curtain.
It's certainly a necessary conversation, the perception of age within creative industries. However, Time struggles to rise to the occasion.
Review: Sebastian Calver