Theatre Review: The Nose at The MAC, Belfast

We did it again! If you follow us on Twitter (@pastiebap1), you may have seen some strange tweets last night with the hashtag #findthenose. This was because we were at The MAC for another tweet along, and this time it was for Bruiser Theatre Company’s new adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s classic short story The Nose. Have a look at what we tweeted here.

On the Bruiser Theatre Company’s website, it states that their main aim is to:

Use minimal set for maximum impact. Further explore the notion of the actor, enforcing him/her as the central mechanism of performance. Streamline and explore the relationship between the essential dynamics of theatre – the actor, the space and the audience. Encourage an environment for the exchange of ideas and collaboration between arts practitioners in production. Commitment to touring, workshop development and teaching to encourage a greater access to theatre. Produce a consistently high quality product.

And that’s exactly what they do every time. With a Bruiser production you’re sure to get a high quality, high octane and highly dynamic show. Suffice to say that The Nose is no different. Written by and starring Patrick J.O’Reilly, and directed by Lisa May, this two man show is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.

Basically it tells the story of Alexey Kovaliov (played by Mitchel Rose) the town Mayor, who wakes up one morning to find that his nose has gone missing off his face. What follows is 75 minutes of non-stop action, the two actors play a multitude of characters in a multitude of situations as Alexey tries to find and win back his beloved nose. The actors don’t stay still, they shift between characters seamlessly and they’re up on the tables, on chairs, under desks, it’s almost like watching them perform a dance -the choreography is so smooth and fluid that the whole performance from start to finish is a joy to watch.

Everything is extremely well done – using just a filing cabinet and two desks, the scene is transformed before the audience’s eyes into a news office, an apartment, a Cathedral, a courthouse, a car chase and much more. We also see the sound effects being created by everything from the typing of a typewriter to the closing of a filing cabinet. It’s really interesting seeing the inner workings of a performance as a part of the actual performance itself.

It may sound absurd, a story about a man with a missing nose, but despite the use of a 3ft giant nose costume and a talking nose that wears a suit and tie, The Nose sucks you into its world of underground dodgy dealings and missing body parts and in the end, it doesn’t seem so bizarre after all. Overall, Bruiser have done a great job in creating an extremely innovative, interesting and entertaining show.

The Nose is running until the 29th March at The MAC (pun intended).
You can buy tickets and find out more information here.