You Are Here – Southwark Playhouse, London

A review of the musical You Are Here, on now at the Southwark Playhouse. This is a warm and engaging production with a top notch team behind it.

My First Post-Lockdown Musical

I have managed to spread my return to live performance over several different arts. I’ve been to a ballet, play, opera, and now a musical. This review comes with the usual disclaimer that I’m not a musical theatre expert, but I do love to see what’s on offer in London and review it for all my dear readers.

You Are Here is a musical by Neil Bartram with book by Brian Hill, which debuted in 2018. This is its first London outing, by the Grey Area Theatre Company and staged at the Southwark Playhouse. The last time I was at the Southwark Playhouse was also to see a musical – The Last Five Years, which now has a West End run. Personally, I prefer You Are Here. I found it engaging, funny and heartbreaking. Wendi Peters in the lead role has an awful lot to do and pulls it off well. And the set and costume design, movement direction and live musicians support the production admirably.

The Southwark Playhouse have continued using perspex screen between household groups in order to allow visitor safety and maximum ticket sales. Frankly, I’m surprised more small venues haven’t followed suit. The screens look a little claustrophobic for single audience members hemmed in on both sides, but you soon get used to them. And otherwise their processes are a well-oiled machine at this stage. You check in, place a drinks order (optional of course), take your seat, and at the end are let out row by row and head on your way. It’s admirably efficient, and means even the Covid-nervous should feel confident coming to see a production here.

You Are Here

You Are Here tells the story of Diana, a woman from surbuban Chicago who, at the outset, is watching the 1969 moon landing on TV. Diana (a moon-themed name, of course) can hardly believe that the beautiful moon she can see outside is the same one that Armstrong and co. are walking on. It sets off a chain of events that sees her leave her home and travel by herself into the city. Conflicted about her marriage, her life, the choices she has made, Diana wants to see if she can. Can she take a walk at night? Can she check into a hotel on her own? And can she be in the midst of things, at the point on a map of ‘You Are Here’?

Throughout this journey of self-discovery, Diana engages both with the people she meets, and voices in her head which are by turns supportive or not. The additional characters and inner voices, as well as the constant voice of Diana’s absent husband, Gerard, are played by the other three actors in the production: Jordan Frazier, Phil Adèle and Rebecca McKinnis. The characters are a mix of fully-fleshed out and… predictable maybe? I’m thinking here of Danny, a Vietnam veteran, some pretty clear 1969 sign-posting. Frazier in particular really inhabits her character, creating some touching moments. I did find the additional layer of voices in Diana’s head a little confusing at points. It seemed from the actions of the background characters as if maybe when she was talking to the audience she was talking out loud? Maybe the point is to create a confusion between realities, though.

Like Alan Bennet’s Talking Heads, Only American. And A Musical

I was struck as I was watching You Are Here to the similarities with the Talking Heads monologues I saw last year at the Bridge Theatre. Several of those monologues are about ordinary people, who have lived small lives, reaching a certain age and facing regret or a moment of ‘now or never’ decision. And so it is for Diana. This dynamic in both the monologue and the musical form creates a lot of opportunity for humour and sorrow, light and shade.

In You Are Here, the lion’s share of this emotional journey is carried by Wendi Peters. It’s a huge part to learn, and a huge range of emotions to connect to. Peters is wonderful in the role and (to me) a revelation. And I would give a special shout out to Libby Todd’s set and costume design as well. The set is very simple, but both the moon and 1960s America are ever-present. For me, it helped to ground the production, to ‘bring it back down to Earth’ as Diana might say.

I think some of the other reviews I have read of You Are Here have been a little unforgiving. I don’t see this musical as being about what the moon landings meant for ‘womankind’. Instead, I felt it was about the ‘what ifs’ of life, and how a seminal event can put things into a new perspective. Maybe the ultimate outcome wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be, but that’s life. I enjoyed it immensely, and hope that a few more people will be able to do likewise during its remaining run.

Salterton Arts Review’s Rating: 4.5/5

You Are Here on until 12 June 2021

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