University of East Anglia's Tub at NSDF09 (from Noises Off)

Warning: this play contains scenes of mild bathing.

In the University of East Anglia’s production of Tub, Olivia Vinall has her hair washed several times by an inquiring young man whose clothing seems a little damaged. He’s missing most of a sleeve and the leg of his trousers, and also has a rip below his arm. Her costume has been similarly mutilated, as perhaps has her mind…or at least her memory.

What is so beautiful about Tub is that it allows an audience to make their own stories, use their imagination and work out for themselves what they think is going on. Different audience members probably have different ideas of what on earth they think happens, and that’s no bad thing. Theatre encouraging and feeding the imagination of those watching is theatre that has succeeded. That’s not to say theatre companies should be allowed the excuse that their audience draws its own meaning from performance, and so performers needn’t bother putting in the work themselves. That isn’t success: it’s laziness.

The Smoke and Mirrors theatre company responsible for Tub certainly aren’t lazy; Tub has a story to it, and a style of its own, if you just make the effort to follow it. Their audience has to be willing to make the connections that are offered up by Vinall and co-star Matthew Hassell, otherwise this play would be incomprehensible. At just twenty minutes long, Tub is concentrated and fluid. It has a potent little mix of short scenes that flow from one to another easily and smoothly. Dialogue is terse and to the point. Tub exists within a world outside of any other, drawing on its own internal reference points and stylistic features. The water-soaked umbrella is an especial visual highlight of their simplistic style.

In the repeated hair-washing and the scenes that follow, Vinall’s nameless character can be seen trying to piece her life back together, delving deep for memories of a special event; a date with Hassell’s character. We aren’t told why she can’t remember exactly what happened, or why she puts this particular day back into her mind. But that’s what’s so good about Tub; we’re given the chance to think something up for ourselves.