Three women are trapped together in a broken elevator. It's an easy gimmick to provide a platform to showcase writing and acting, but one forgives the lazy set-up when both these elements are strong. The writer/actor in question is Jess Sayer, and she, indeed, proves herself talented in both fields. Sayer's dialogue is as naturalistic as her characterisation is slight and emoting understated. Her gentle presence is inviting and she's very pretty - I expect we'll be seeing a lot more of her in years to come.
Sayer shares the stage with Michelle Hine and Lauren Gibson. The three complement each other very well and I enjoyed the mother-daughter dynamic between Gibson and Hine. What drives the story and keeps the viewer interested in these three is that they evidently have a rich history together. The script's strongest element for me was that it hinted at the back-story little by little and let the story unravel at a natural pace. Although the "big secret" was fairly obvious from the start, the tension of keeping this secret builds in such a way that its eventual reveal is quite satisfying.
What lets Elevator down is, in this case, not gears and winches but the performances of Gibson and Hine. While I enjoyed them at the top of the play, Gibson soon settled into a pattern of alternately sulking and shouting; the lack of variety grew tiresome. Hine, meanwhile, plays a very recognisable mother, and provides the calm centre amidst Sayer's neuroses and Gibson's explosiveness. However, her more candid did not quite ring true.
See this play for the fresh new script.
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