Glass Eye Theatre’s production of “The City and Iris”

I recently went to see Glass Eye Theatre’s production of “The City and Iris” at the Zoo Roxy and was very impressed. This was a lovely production following the journey of dowdy young Iris who developed a neurosis about her eyesight after being advised to wear glasses by someone working a locum doctors job in her town for a minor eye condition at a young age. The story is illustrated by a lovely ensemble that plays anything from ducks in a pond to work colleagues at the library where Iris works. The storytelling is sweet and inventive and while there is humour to be mined in Iris’ geeky manner this never tips over in to caricature. At all times the phrase “simple yet effective” rings true and the performers rely on nothing but themselves to tell the tale. Instead of recorded music the ensemble use their own unaccompanied voices to fantastic affect and while the technique of an actor becoming the sounds of a radio has been done many times before, it was executed very well indeed here. The cast are all Jacques Le Coq trained which is evident from the fantastic physicality and sense of ensemble which exists at all times. However on occasions their training is a bit too evident. For example when illustrating a crowded tube train, I felt that I had seen this many times before by Complicite or the like. This is a minor quibble of course and I’d hope that as the company develop they find their own distinctive language and perhaps avoid such classic Le Coq tableaus, as I feel that they are certainly a company with a long future in front of them. This was a sensitive, warm and skilful production and I left the theatre feeling uplifted with the calming tunes of the ensemble going round and around happily in my head.