In the intimate setting of the Garden at Holden Street Theatres Casey Jay Andrews brings this sad, funny tale to life with wit and compassion.
Protagonist Dylan feels that her life is falling apart. A mugging has left her without money or phone. She has just lost her job and has been asked to leave her share flat. Her car has broken down in a carpark near Heathrow airport at 5am in the morning. In desperation she grabs her treasured sketchbook and sets off on the long walk to a place where she has felt happy and safe in the past, the London Aquarium.
Meantime, in a surreal twist, Ahab the ginger cat is on a quest for revenge against Dylan and her car Moby. The tension builds until their lives collide at a point and time in London in 2018 where the seemingly surreal and impossible actually became real.
Casey Jay warmly invites the audience into the story. She shares insights into her motivations and inspirations regarding the creation of this work. She dispenses interesting snippets of information the relevance of which only became clear to me later on as the story wound around. As in her other works this deeply personal story is shared with genuine warmth and honesty. And humour.
This is a play about the search for meaning and for human connection in a time of crisis, of trying to find a way out of confusion and uncertainty. It illustrates that there is no black and white, that the world is not split between good and evil. That we need not carry a burden of guilt for things that are beyond our control, but at the same time we need to acknowledge that we can be at fault. And that we should never stop trying to reach out to one another for that is part of what it is to be human. With clever writing and engaging storytelling this is a multi-layered modern fable of intelligence and emotional depth.
Casey Jay Andrews is a multi-award winning writer and performer and this is her follow up to her show last year “The Archive of Educated Hearts”. Her show runs until 14th March at Holden Street Theatres.
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