Time Of Your Life
The play was vehemently fast-paced, and the contrast b/w strange, energetic physicalizations of the ensemble as compared to the protagonist’s weary, tired demeanour drew the audience in from the start, albeit in a disorienting manner due to the surreal happenings like his ‘birth’ where he is wrapped up in plastic.
The play within a play concept, often utilised as a comedic trope ( to the point of banality sometimes) was given a refreshingly new spin. Brechtian techniques were employed: the lighting and the progression through the doors served the role to not distance the audience, but instead the protagonist whom the audience empathised with. His emotions of bewilderment, fatigue regarding life echo within the audience: only the ensemble is alienated by the use of unnatural, frantic pacing.
I found that the play is effective in conveying the effects the franticness of modern life can have on a person, as well as larger existential questions such as the pointlessness of routine and the cycle of life, especially in the climax where the protagonist finds that what he experienced was an illusion. A hopeful ending is present, where the protagonist becomes more hero-like: he ‘rescues’ the cast of the ensemble and they exit the building.
The fact that this was a television play also factors in: the illusion could not have been maintained if the same set was utilised live. This itself may be a comment on the artificiality of the modern world.
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