A new theatre company created in 2007, Gin in the Teas first production The Space Between My Head and My Body shows promise for the future but lacks narrative drive and clarity.
Theres an interesting concept, in that the show explores the lives of seven people who collide on an aeroplane. This location, a pressurised environment in which you are in-between and neither here nor there could lend itself to great drama. However, I did not feel enough of a connection with any of these seven people to really care too much or fully understand their issues, actions and concerns. As the various strands become blurred it also becomes more difficult to keep track of whos who, when, where, how and why exactly they fit in. This may be the point of the piece but for me proved frustrating rather than revelatory.
Included in these seven people is a young mother, a cross-dressing son Mark and his jealous sister, a career air-hostess and one or two others that I didnt quite place. Some interesting points are made about sexuality and its links to gender representation; Mark is not gay despite assumptions made by others though isnt overtly heterosexual either, possessing a certain asexual quality. Family values, parental influences and sibling rivalry are also adequately probed.
The crux of the production is that we can sometimes feel detached or at the least disassociated from our lives and our bodies, though this is only suggested rather than explored. The message is introduced and the idea is valid and one with which we can identify, but the detachment I felt from the seven travellers disallowed any real connection to their struggle.
It will be interesting to see this company and its spirited performers grow and develop, though more structural clarity and an increased rigour in textual exploration is needed in their work. Theyve got a big bag of ideas but they need to knit them together more carefully.
