Review: YOU HEARD ME, Battersea Arts Centre - Tour

Photo credit: Eastside

You Heard Me is a one-woman physical theatre piece featuring Luca Rutherford and the true story of how her scream helped her escape an attack. Focusing on a normal Tuesday, the piece explores Rutherford’s pre-show run, which ended with a violent ambush from a man claiming to be a police officer.

With references to sexual violence and heavy themes, all of the performances are ‘relaxed,’ allowing audience members to exit and re-enter the auditorium at any point if they wish. The show opens with clear trigger warnings and a safe space for people to leave if they feel uncomfortable. It is refreshing to see such compassion offered to the audience.

The performance is tucked into the Battersea Arts Centre as part of its nine-city tour. The simple, yet eye-catching design by Bethany Wells, and lighting by Bethany Gupwell, puts us in the world of the show’s “celebration of a single moment of noise.” It begins with a high-energy rock-out dance party from Rutherford which, paired with a blow-up neon pink mattress, overloads of confetti, and a silver balloon, creates the atmosphere of a teenage birthday party.

The lively introduction falls away. A voiceover explains how Rutherford was running alone when she was dragged away by a stranger. This goes into striking detail on how she fought and screamed, and only just managed to escape. With snippets of the voiceover echoing around the stage, the performer physically unpacks the story, finding herself in loops. As she races across the stage, runs up and falls off a set of stairs, and grapples viciously with the air mattress, her anger is visceral.

The atmosphere is often uncomfortable as you join Luca, circling through the words, and the same actions. Her performance, with direction by Maria Crocker and movement direction by Linzy Na Nakorn, is frantic and unpredictable, yet compelling to watch.

The entire experience feels like an insight into the inner workings of Rutherford’s brain and though the piece may not have a linear structure or traditional narrative, it feels like a deeply personal spilling of the soul. Rutherford’s message is loud and clear: take up space. Make noise. Don’t silence yourself.

In this production, Luca Rutherford does exactly that. She takes up space, she makes noise, and she doesn’t silence herself. Her story is an important one, which deserves to be heard.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Grace Howarth

You Heard Me plays at Battersea Arts Centre until 14 October before continuing its tour. For more information, please click here.