I Made You a Mixtape – Response Theatre Company / The Cockpit Theatre, London

Nine young women make merry tonight, for tomorrow brings with it the rest of their lives, in I Made You a Mixtape by Response Theatre Company.

I Made You a Mixtape

Music has such a power to bring us back to other times in our life. I Made You a Mixtape, Response Theatre Company’s first full-length work, leans into this nostalgic power. As the stories of nine women unfold on stage, we experience their joys, sorrows, fears and resolve in a work that blends dance and physical theatre. Meisner-based theatre, more specifically. What is that, you ask? The Meisner technique was developed by Sanford Meisner, a theatre practitioner most associated with the Neighborhood Theatre in New York. It encourages actors to focus not on themselves and their thoughts and feelings, but on those around them.

It seems quite a simple – or at least straightforward – technique. And on the surface, the premise of I Made You a Mixtape is also quite simple. Nine young women are at a college dorm party. Although some of the music strays a little into the early 2000s, the setting is the 90s: pop punk, no phones (unless you count Dream Phone), plenty of cargo pants.

While the women are there to have fun, it becomes apparent that they are all on the precipice of something. One is about to break up with a partner, another will be entering rehab. I won’t give everything away, those two examples give you a sense of it. Poster boards at the back of the thrust stage tell us who each woman is and what awaits her, before she has one or two songs to tell her story through dance and moment, including interaction with the others. Set pieces (including one dance routine of the type beloved of girls everywhere) are interspersed with a freer, more spontaneous approach.

And So We Dance!

The initially carefree college party setting is thus made bittersweet by the knowledge that this life together is about to change. That adult responsibilities are coming, and the training ground of college will not be home forever. I’m interpolating this, because the episodic nature of I Made You a Mixtape means it avoids an overt conclusion. After each of the women takes her turn, we wave glowsticks, watch a final group number, then are invited up for a dance. If there’s something more we should be taking from all this, it’s probably that the structure mirrors that of a mixtape more than it does a classic three act play. A series of well-chosen songs and then it’s over!

Which brings me to consider: is doing something well enough justification on its own for a work of theatre? And I ask that with an open mind. Response Theatre Company have presumably utilised the Meisner technique well. They are the UK’s first Meisner-based movement company, and as such I haven’t had much opportunity for comparison. But the connection between performers, and their investment in each others’ stories, felt real. They also do nostalgia very well. As a Millennial I enjoyed the 90s soundtrack. And the premise took me back to those friendships that seem like they will be the centre of the universe forever.

Thinking back to yesterday’s performance (at the Cockpit Theatre, ahead of an Edinburgh Fringe run), those are the overriding impressions. There are a few aspects that could in theory be polished. The live drummer and guitarist over a soundtrack are quite a nice addition but not strictly necessary, and not tied into anything that happens on stage. And, as I said earlier, it’s very episodic so the climax, when it comes, feels more like something happening because the show needs an ending. Nine women each had a story, and they’ve now told them. And so we dance! Let’s remember, after all – this is a mixtape.

I do think there is something to excellence being a justification in and of itself. In I Made You A Mixtape, we have a fun work of physical theatre which audiences connect with, which tries something new, shares different perspectives, and fondly recreates a lost time and place. Not bad for less than an hour on stage. It would definitely be worth seeing at Edinburgh – this is a work I am confident will continue to evolve.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3.5/5

I Made You A Mixtape finished performances at the Cockpit Theatre on 14 June. See here for future date and ticket information.