Low Down

An autobiographical one-man show written and performed by Lynn Manning, set in Los Angeles. A life story that is a rollercoaster to somewhere good.

Review

Something I have noticed in recent years at the Fringe is that productions that have any kind of life-affirming qualities or ultimately positive messages, tend to hit a glass ceiling of f'our-stars,' no matter how truly outstanding they are. It is in fashion to be slightly disapproving of life-affrimation as art.

Lynn Manning's one-man tour-de-force, "Weights" has achieved several four-star ratings at the Edinburgh Fringe 2008, and I believe it is time at least one reviewer who isn't afraid of applauding both positivity AND outstanding theatre and presenting this production with a well deserved five star rating to a play in which the "universal oneness of all things" is shared and made practically evident. This is a piece of theatre that isn't afraid to chart the darkest hours of a person's biography, yet equally to celebrate, and even offer up to an audience, a happier outcome, and a message that the lowest places we sometimes find ourselves in are the places from which the steps can only rise upward.

Lynn Manning, actor, writer, commentator on life, and occasional comedian of the stage, has a rich vibrant voice, which tells a tale so evocative and resonant, it received regular whoops, sighs and spontaneous rounds of applause from audience members. Manning shares his own personal story, creating the voices and gestures, so well observed, of over a dozen characters, in a journey that takes us through his childhood, the sixties, the seventies and toward the now.

The violent act that led to his blindness is re-charted and played out with superb pacing, observation, poetry and not a small amount of hindsight-humour. This is fine writing realised on the stage through direct story-acting. We find ourselves in L.A, on Hollywood's famous Vine Street. We stare down the barrel of a gun with Manning, and we stare with him down the tunnel of years that represents his past, present and a future without sight yet brimming with insight. I stopped taking notes after ten minutes, the reviewer's notebook and pen dropped, and I had to just watch and listen.

As a performer, his authenticity and directness is refreshing. This is a man on a "free ride to wasted", who takes us beyond the darker years and into a place where he is realising himself through the creative opportunity that blindness has brought him. Manning performs with an economy of movement, a large but graceful soul, his delivery is so on top of his material that it feels as if he is telling the story for the first time. The ability to do that confirms this as outstanding work.

A story of loss of sight, of growing up, and of learning to experience the inner light of creativity, so well described by writers such as Jacques Lusseryan, Manning has succeeded in bring a life-affirming story to the stage that never descends into sentimentality and firmly confronts the harsh realities of life. A story of loss of sight, perhaps; but Manning has helped the rest of us to see a little more clearly with this fabulous play.

Reviewed by PL 10th August 2008

Website :

www.theatretoursinternational.com