By Rebekah Froggatt
Alice Stephens plays Spit It Out is a funny, upbeat and moving story about a trans woman struggling to navigate the challenges of coming out as trans to her family, friends and workplace, and with the help of director Noah-Alfred Pantano, the performance is one you will not want to miss.
With the opening scene full of colour and life, the actors took to the stage with high energy and complemented actor Audrey Thompson, who played Emily, on her debut performance at the Lakeside Theatre. The lighting and music set the tone for the play, and immediately reassured the audience that this was going to be an enjoyable experience.
Other actors, Robyn Faye, Isobel Sheard and Joe Eason made up a brillant ensemble cast while playing a variety of different characters throughout different scenes. The transitions between locations and moments were creative and certainly kept the audience intrigued for more.
The set design was simple, with only three chairs, a clothing rack filled with costumes, and the stage half tabs closed, the actors definitely brought the stage to life and made excellent use of their small space. The style was very Brecht, allowing the audience to see costume changes and set changes on stage interwoven into the performance, added to the Spit It Out charm.
However, it’s important to point out that the play is mainly monologue focused, which at times did tend to drag and lose its energy as certain scenes felt a tad too long. Audrey did an excellent job at tackling the sexual scenes, having to go into detail within the script about Emily’s first sexual experience, these scenes had great flow to them. But some scenes I found difficult to follow as it wasn’t clear where they were located or what was happening.
Spit It Out had its debut performance at the Lakeside Theatre, so the play is still very much in its early days.
Some of my favourite scenes of the performance included a school scene, where the cast play teenagers and run around the stage with cucumbers making sexual comments and jokes while Emily spoke to the audience. The continuous differences within scenes is an excellent choice of directing from Stephens and Pantano, and it really was amazing to see the amount of talent and creativity that has gone into this play.
Heart strings were also tugged at during the show, as Emily overcomes a huge challenge and finally becomes who she truly wants to be, it left me teary eyed at the end.
The production was a brilliant first debut, with some improvements that could be added, I can see this play making its way into other theatres very quickly. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend watching it to anyone. I left the theatre feeling enlightened and truly happy to have witnessed such a fantastic show.
7/10 – Funny, upbeat and moving.