Run Girl Run
Run Girl Run is a cleverly devised exploration of gender politics condensed into two treadmill cycles. Many contemporary theatre pieces share its concerns, but this show, presented by Grit Theatre, tackles them in a fashion so direct that it feels unique.
The lights go up on three treadmills, which three people soon fill. What follows is an hour of running, drinking, and seemingly empty conversation. It’s like Waiting for Godot for a generation with gym memberships and low self-esteem. The characters are constantly running without moving forward. They are simultaneously exercising and drinking to excess. They talk with one another, but only to reach the narrowest possible consensus.
It does not have a traditional plot. Instead, it finds form in conversational motifs that perfectly assert the crippling, systematic imposition of this culture’s fixation on body image. The details of the conversation are often too stunted and mundane to be entertaining in their own right. However, that is not to say that the sum of the parts is anything short of insightful. The conversation as a whole is ingeniously structured around the building speed of the treadmill. Manifestations of underlying self-doubt intensify to hysterical self-disgust as the pace of the machines increases.
Run Girl Run has been described as high energy, but really this physical energy only comes in bursts at the end of the treadmill cycle. It is easy to be impressed by the physical endurance of the actors (they do run continuously and drink a lot), but that is to ignore the point of the show. What the cast, comprised of Tom Browne, Laura Hughes and Clare Phillips, succeed in is less gimmicky than simply running for an hour. It is instead their keen timing and perfectly emphasised delivery of crucial conversation motifs that deserve praise.
Run Girl Run is an invigorating theatre piece, but not because of the physical endurance of the actors. It is instead how the show uses its central oxymoron: stationary motion, and how it uses emotionally stunted characters to reach powerful emotional climaxes.
