View from the Green Room: Not for the faint hearted
Time Passes by Natasha Everitt at Garter Lane.
Local actress Natasha Everitt took to the boards of the Garter Lane stage with her one-woman play ‘Time Passes’ before a good audience.
Natasha is a superb actress and, to the best of my knowledge, this is her first foray into writing for the stage.
Asleep on a bench in her room, with a clutter of crisp packets strewn all over the floor, an offstage mother’s voice calls ‘Jennifer’ to waken her from her slumber and initiate her monologue around herself. Drapes of thin drops hang from the flies to invite us to look beyond the obvious to the inner character itself.
Jennifer is her own person but she’s got mental health problems and a lot of time to think. It’s not an ideal situation. Her mother’s nagging doesn’t help although would any mother not involve herself in her daughter’s affairs who has had episodes of self-harm. Her mother has already put any sharp object or edge out of Jennifer’s reach.
She’s paying for therapy sessions as well that Jennifer doesn’t attend. Therapists are dismissed as useless mouthpieces that charge a fortune.
She sits on the bench in the park and imagines scenarios with the other occupants of the mid-morning. Show off wives with poodles or pensioners with eyes for young girls. Jennifer has little time for any of them. In fact, she’s got little time for anyone – especially herself. There’s a lot of self-hate going on and her fantasies do little to alleviate that.
She hates her mother checking up on her and avoids verbal contact as much as possible. "I’m going to take a shower," says she when she returns from the therapy session she’s just skipped.
Her mum has left her razor in the shower and Jennifer is thrilled. She describes her feelings in graphic detail as the razor cuts into her legs and the release the experience brings.
Written and performed by Natasha Everitt and directed by Deirdre Dwyer, ‘Time Passes’ is not for the faint-hearted.
