Review of ‘Reality Bites’: “Half-chewed narrative gives audiences a mouthful of gravitas but also more than teething problems”

The new Arches Lane Theatre hosts the return of Jamie Christian’s monogical play, brought in a new production running until the middle of the month. Guillermo Nazara shares his views on the show — to let us know if its molarity tale is the chomp-ion of the season.

Dating nowadays is pretty much the same experience as using London’s public transportation — it very rarely runs smoothly, and you should always watch out for signal failures. Yet, we keep trying to reach that final destination, no matter how tortuous, loud, and mass-massacre-thoughts-inducing that may be.

Author Jamie Christian makes a fine attempt at exploring that concept through Reality Bites, which opened last night at the recently rebranded Arches Lane Theatre, formerly known as The Turbine. A set of four monologues concoct this one-hour play, dealing with the trials and tribulations of different types of people, all seeking love and understanding, and trying to find their voice in a world that seems to play deaf to their needs.

Parting from a compelling germinal idea, Christian makes an adequate effort at constructing his characters: a gay man from East London facing cultural clash and a class-gap conflict through his new relationship, while struggling with the anxiety caused by previous homophobic situations; an older gentleman trying to preserve the flame in his love life; a mature woman leaving her past aside in pursue of her true self and happiness; and a young lad going through the pain of an unfair breakup and the even more harrowing consequences of her former partner’s actions.

Despite its dark-comedy approach, the script’s pathos is undeniable — and to some extent, also palpable. All the themes it encompasses hold resonance towards the viewer, and their handling is adequate to a certain degree. The problem resides in an overall lack of polish, both in form and execution. Though it employs the make-believe Reality Bites TV show as the glue connecting all the testimonies (a fictional equivalent to Channel Four’s cocky Naked Attraction), its presence in the narrative is not as strong to bring cohesiveness and rhythm to the overall jaunt — becoming more prominent in the last two installments, but looking like nothing else but a mere excuse during the first half.

The characters’ arcs are also flawed, relying on too much exposition and, except for the woman’s story, resulting in a stagnant ride that doesn’t go anywhere. In addition, though there is profundity and some occasional flashes of wit, the text’s sharpness is far from achieving its full potential. Usually stuck at a mid-point, it displays some level of skillfulness, but it’s still a long way from flaunting mastery. Consequently, we can only think, as an audience, of how its lines could be much more clever and probably funnier.

The cast does a decent job of bringing the recount to life. Credible but not touching, the general issue stems from the scarce layering of most of the performances, boasting acting resources but showing very little preparation when it comes to building their version of the role. As such, many of the portrayals feel disingenuous, taking us on a not-too-inviting rendezvous where the person trying to charm us can only bring more focus to the facade of their fabricated persona, inevitably losing us in that effort. Robert Eades makes an exception through his nuanced rendition, oozing some more gravitas and naturalness and, all in all, delivering a sincere interpretation.

Gnawing at several poignant subjects but nipping past them through a rushed take, Reality Bites isn’t by any means a hard pill to swallow. Yet, the possibilities to make it more palatable are undeniable. Unbalanced about how much time and evolution each character gets, the play could still become the jaw-dropping journey it aims to be, should it undertake some thorough editing. It surely isn’t a grind, but its incisive attitude is yet to be proven.

Reality Bites plays at London’s Arches Lane Theatre until 20 July. Tickets are available on the following link.

By Guillermo Nazara