Astonishing performance at Coventry’s Shop Front has audience gripped

The Wedge, Shop Front Theatre, City Arcade, Coventry. On until tomorrow (Saturday). Box office: 0845 680 1926.

POWER point and pencil skirt - so starts the journey of actor/writer Naomi Said in this gripping tour de force at the Shop Front Theatre in Coventry.

For those not familiar with Theatre Absolute, its professional work can be found anywhere from Warwick Arts Centre to the Edinburgh Festival but always, since 2009, in its permanent home in the former fish and chip shop on the edge of Coventry’s City Arcade.

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It’s there that new works are often given their premiers. This was the case on Tuesday with Naomi Said’s astonishing Talking Heads style performance during which she had the audience hanging on her every word and gesture for 45 minutes.

The story is of a successful young woman coming face to face with an ugly incident from her past and how she copes with it.

The direction comes from the theatre’s artistic director Chris O’Connell, who has himself been writing plays for theatre, television and radio for several years and organises bespoke writing gym workshops at the venue.

Naomi, a professional actress whose only prop was a backlit triptych image of herself, had obviously learned all Chris had to teach - and then some.

This is a dazzling production.

Barbara Goulden

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