Review: GET YOUR LIFE BACK! Queen Mary Theatre Company - Edinburgh Fringe (Online)
No one is allowed outside, that’s the way it is now. The only way to return to normality is to win a game show and ‘Get Your Life Back!’ Watch contestants, who never meet in person, compete to be the most popular and earn the right to leave their home and venture back out into the big wide world …. and win a large amount of cash too, obviously!
Written and directed by Lewis Taylor and Alexandra Craveiro, Get Your Life Back! makes an interesting point. The basis for its explanation as to why people are locked indoors is not entirely due to COVID-19 regulations, as you might expect. Civilisation needs to be able to evolve and to do that, the Earth needs to be allowed to repair itself so humans need to stay inside. We should all be familiar with footage on social media of animals reclaiming small towns and cities that had suddenly become silent due to the lockdown restrictions, and this story takes it one step further.
Contestants are encouraged to complete a profile and then, if successful, compete against each other from within their own homes. Communicating with each other through an Alexa-style system known as ‘Orbit’, the individuals are then ranked in order of popularity by the audience, with the lowest eliminated each time, until the winner remains. The elimination isn’t as simple as it appears to be; the contestants are literally competing for their lives, not just their freedom.
It’s an exaggerated version of Big Brother, but it’s not completely unimaginable.
Tom Lafferty plays the screwball gameshow host Clive Valentine, who is clearly out for himself and Tali Stowell is contestant Debbie McGee, who is more than slightly obsessed with Valentine.
Overall, the content and performances are strong. There are the other contestants: Mr and Mrs Cinnamon (Jasmine Donaldson and Edward Langley) - the married ones, Jolene (Amy Evans) - the content creator and Brucette Wavey (Maya Barter) - the student, who puts in the most resounding performance.
It’s an entertaining piece and one that makes you wonder, what would we do in that situation?
**** Four Stars.
Reviewed by: Rachel Louise Martin
Get Your Life Back! is available at Fringe Online.