Review: JUST BARKING, Upstairs at the Gatehouse
Upon first glance, Just Barking, a one-woman show following Tammy, a nurse, as she gradually loses grip on her sanity while dealing with the trials and tribulations of daily working life, might not seem like the most uplifting subject matter. However, this show deftly rides the line between dark humour and satirical critique, adapting Gogol's farcical story Diary of a Madman for modern audiences.
Running at approximately an hour, Just Barking is written and directed by Joe Wiltshire Smith, who turns an adept hand at compressing this woman's loss of reality into a bite-sized tour de force, a rollercoaster ride from start to finish that left us both heartbroken and hopeful. It would be very easy for such a piece to feel gratuitously dark and heavy, yet Rebecca Gilliland gives a powerhouse performance as Tammy, handling the subject matter with a level of humanity, levity, and earnestness that the audience cannot help but empathise and relate.
Tammy's tale is tumultuous at best, a trainee nurse who meets the love of her life (supposedly), and then her chic (talking!?) chihuahua named Keith; a meeting which sends Tammy's life down a road of no return. Reality is very clearly subjective in this piece, but Gilliland shifts through all characters and difficult content seamlessly, making us laugh, cry, and fear for our lives in one scene alone. Credit must be given to Smith, whose clean writing and direction makes even the strangest non-sequiturs easy to follow.
As a black box piece, the minimal set and design helps to draw us in and captures the sparse nature of Tammy's personal life and sanity, a factor that is only heightened by the fact that it is a one-woman show. Headache inducing club beats often serve as bookends for the scene changes, characterising Tammy's chaotic internal state and catapulting the audience from humorous to heartbreaking.
Just Barking is an incredible piece of work. The tight bookwork of Joe Wiltshire Smith is brought to life by an active, witty, and hugely versatile Gilliland, tying everything together with an almost Goldilocks level of accuracy. It's just right. Hopefully it won't be too long unti Tammy graces the stage again, but until then, Just Barking is running in repertoire at Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate Village, alongside That Day, until 21 October.
A descent into madness, covered by the NHS.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Jack Francis
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