Need to smash stress? To find inner bliss? While this interactive mock-seminar may not offer solutions to these pressing problems of modern life, it does serve up an entertaining, if not always pitch-perfect hour of comic theatre.Emily Watson Howes stars in this one-hander as seminar leader Kimberley Jane Feldhause. The character is a manically grinning, larger than life creation whose energy carries through the piece. Audience interaction provides most of the comic moments. Fedhause berates and baffles volunteers, getting them to take part in role-plays, answer questions about their fears, and generally be party to her bizarre take on stress management.The narrative of the piece is where the comedy feels misjudged. We watch our seminar leader have an energetic breakdown, rampantly over-sharing and hiding under tables. The irony of her job as an expert on stress relief, is, of course, hammered home. Though Howes gives this descent into chaos all of her energy, I felt some restraint was needed. From the word go, Fedhause’s smile is too wide and fixed, her movements are too manic for us to take her seriously or laugh with shock when she throws oranges around the room. It all seems too credulous.Throughout the piece David Brent of The Office came to mind. Brent’s actions in similar leadership situations repeatedly provoke the gasped laughter that Howes was aiming for. Though Howes plays the crazed side of the role well, the character lacks the straight-faced moments without self-consciousness necessary to reap the full comic potential from her movement towards meltdown. As Kimberley Jane Feldhausen herself states, ‘if there’s been a journey, that’s great’. Unfortunately, that’s the real thing missing from this piece. Howe’s fantastic liveliness is wasted when we can see what will happen from her entrance.
