{"id":357135,"date":"2025-08-19T15:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/357135\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T15:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:36:11","slug":"camden-fringe-2025-i-really-want-to-wring-a-seagulls-neck-aces-and-eights-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/357135\/","title":{"rendered":"Camden Fringe 2025: I Really Want to Wring a Seagull’s Neck\u2013 Aces and Eights. London"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer: Lucy Matthes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Charlotte D\u2019Angelo<\/strong><\/p>\n

This dark and gory solo play takes us inside the mind of a fragile young woman.\u00a0 With few moments of relief, it is an intense 40-minute monologue that doesn\u2019t really move beyond its initial premise. Although Lucy Matthes\u2019s I Really Want to Wring a Seagull\u2019s Neck is not a substantial story, with Tabitha Kenworthy\u2019s subtle performance, the character of Ant is the thread that holds our attention.<\/p>\n

Ant is trapped in a controlling and dangerous relationship with Gil. Having left university at Gil\u2019s insistence, and unable to find work, she is lonely and stuck inside their Brighton flat. Ant finds solace in listening to Beethoven on an old-fashioned record player, but aggressively screeching gulls persistently interrupt her while dancing to his music. Her growing frustration can no longer be contained, and she decides to kill them all.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t take a giant swoop to see how Ant\u2019s hatred of gulls is a transference of her abusive relationship with Gil. Her acts of violence are a ferocious release of fear.\u00a0 Desperate for help, we are witnessing a breakdown. Kenworthy even looks like a gull, dressed entirely in white, with clunky boots, and her bobbed blond hair \u201cdyed this colour because gulls attack redheads most often\u201d.\u00a0 Ant is struggling to stay in reality. Do we believe her? Is she killing gulls, or is this disturbing fantasy dangerously feeding future choices?<\/p>\n

Matthes\u2019s writing finds the balance between too much grisly reality and Ant\u2019s troubled mind, and yet, the premise feels unfinished. We are told, the myth of seagulls is that they carry the souls of dead sailors, although this isn\u2019t explored further or connected to Ant\u2019s story. Kenworthy\u2019s monologue is often offset by her dancing to Beethoven, and this feels like a refrain without reason, though the movements eventually become a dance of escape with echoes of Nora Helmer\u2019s Tarantella.<\/p>\n

Neither the sound effects of shrieking gulls nor the lighting adds much to the production. However, the relentless murder of seagulls provokes a feeling of unease and horror, with director Charlotte D\u2019Angelo pacing the action that builds to a potentially tragic climax.\u00a0 With a carefully choreographed closing image and an especially vivid dream, this is the beginning of an interesting story. In one particular striking moment, Kenworthy desperately brushes off what might be invisible blood from her arms, and in wringing her hands, reveals a moment of Lady Macbeth who has witnessed too much horror.<\/p>\n

Runs until <\/strong>20 August 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

Camden Fringe runs until 24 August 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe Reviews Hub Star Rating <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Writer: Lucy Matthes Director: Charlotte D\u2019Angelo This dark and gory solo play takes us inside the mind of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[122962,748,115142,125797,393,4884,125798,257,125799,123823,6080,125800,2764,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-357135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-aces-and-eights","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-camden-fringe-2025","11":"tag-charlotte-dangelo","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-i-really-want-to-wring-a-seagulls-neck","15":"tag-london","16":"tag-lucy-matthews","17":"tag-new-writing","18":"tag-review","19":"tag-tabitha-kenworthy","20":"tag-theatre","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115056173674306687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}