Big Foot and tiny little heart strings

Review by: Paul Towers, 10 November 2017

Big Foot by Joseph Barnes-Philips

Produced by Black Theatre Live, Highrise Theatre & Stratford Circus Arts Centre, directed by Dominic Garfield

Upstairs @ The Western, 10 November 2017

“a tale of teenage angst and sudden maturity.”

Rayleigh lives in South London, the only child of separated Guyanese parents. Treading that awkward path from teen to man, Rayleigh is on the verge of falling in with the wrong crowd and ending up like his absent father when he meets Spice Girl, the woman of his dreams, and everything changes. Suddenly he has responsibilities and a child on the way.

Big Foot is written and performed by Joseph Barnes-Philips and is littered with autobiographical elements. There is an atmospheric soundtrack and clever lighting as each scene changes.

I love these one man/woman shows with multiple characters. I am in awe of the way they can switch from one to the other in an instant and convey a character with either an expression, a gesture or a simple accessory. Barnes-Philips has this talent in spades and has us instantly believing he is an old woman,  a gangsta, a teenager and a Spice Girl as he weaves his tale of teenage angst and sudden maturity.

Big Foot has been touring and future dates can be found on www.blacktheatrelive.co.uk/tours/big-foot. The script is available on Amazon

Upstairs at The Western http://upstairsatthewestern.com/
http://ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk/

First reviewed in Western Gazette