Unreachable currently showing at the Royal Court is written and directed by Anthony Neilson and stars Matt Smith and Jonjo O’Neill.
This is a play with a difference born from an idea by Antony Neilson but completely improvised by the cast during six weeks of rehearsals.
Matt Smith plays the film director on a constant quest to find the perfect light whilst driving his producer (Amanda Drew) and Cameraman (Richard Pyros) round the bend as they desperately try to convince him to finish the film.
Matt Smith is great playing the troubled film director (Maxim) who makes any excuse to stop the film being made but is ultimately searching for fulfilment in his life but never quite achieving it.
The play is very funny but moves up a notch half way through with the appearance of Jonjo O’Neil playing the Ukrainian actor Ivan nicknamed ‘The Brute’ who Maxim brings in to ‘save’ the film.
Ivan is an extremely angry but hilarious character who shouts at the audience asking them whether they hope he will “brighten this dirge” and likens all films to “vomit” and “sewage”.
He is aghast when he discovers that they have nicknamed him ‘The Brute’ and insists he “once walked a thousand miles to save the life of a fly”.
You can see that Jonjo is having fun playing the character constantly improvising resulting in both him and Matt Smith finding it difficult to keep straight faces which just makes it even funnier for the audience.
O’Neill’s performance makes this play unmissable and as each performance changes as the cast continue to improvise it is one play that can be seen more than once!
Unreachable plays at the Royal Court, Slone Square until 6th August.
Geronimo Entertainment 