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Essay On The Other Place, The Earthworks/Myth

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Paired in the Mischief Series at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Other Place, The Earthworks/Myth immerses the audience into both novel, and common-place ideas and perspectives: the concept of slow glass and the disregard towards the environment. Written by Tom-Morton Smith and directed by Erica Whyman, The Earthworks combines themes of companionship and science (rather strange mix that is perhaps hard to relate to), allowing us to wrap our heads around a difficult idea with the help of an age old story. With a short interval in between the two, the double bill performance introduces a second play, Myth, written by Matt Hartley and Kirsty Housley and directed by Kirsty Housley, a striking performance ending with an oil-coated set which alludes to underlying meanings.
Meeting coincidentally at the hotel bar, journalist Clare (Lena Kaur) and particle physicist Fritjof (Thomas Magnussen) engage in familiarly awkward small talk. The slow monotonous conversation between the two provides an insight into each character’s personality, and sets the mood of the whole play. Clare’s eager energetic nature is starkly juxtaposed with Fritjof’s reserved, even apprehensive mannerisms. If the small …show more content…

In Fritjof’s beautifully intimate recount of his interactions with the slow glass, he breaks down the walls he created around himself and exposes his sensitive interior that was hidden away. This intimate moment between Clare and him humanises the two characters and brings the piece back to reality that these are two people, regardless of their careless decisions they made prior to this encounter. The production seems to glide over the fact that both of them are married and does not confront the fact that there is something morally wrong with that, in fact it seems almost as if it is praising this type of

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