Review: Eat, Sleep, Ponder, Repeat, Hen and Chickens Theatre

Camden Fringe

Review: Eat, Sleep, Ponder, Repeat, Hen and Chickens Theatre

Laura has a lot to answer for. She may only appear for a few seconds in video form in Jaylie Wayling‘S Eat, sleep, think, repeatbut because of her “It was nice to meet you” and a questionable frown with one eyebrow, we spend the whole show watching Jaylie agonize over whether Laura likes her or not. For Jaylie, it’s a chance to analyze it to the tiniest detail, because she thinks too much and worries about every detail. It may sound trivial, but it’s something that controls her life and causes inaction, as she overanalyzes every possible scenario, especially the worst ones!

But back to Laura. Jaylie introduces her on the video screen by showing the same two-second clip over and over as she tries to make sense of every little moment – even magnifying the one offending eyebrow so we can all see that slight movement. It’s a very funny and effective introduction to Jaylie’s anxieties and works as a wonderful framing device for the whole show. It really should form the basis of all future rewrites to ensure it’s the focus of the piece.

Jaylie 2 supports Jaylie as she ponders that eyebrow. Jaylie 2 is played with the necessary confidence and carefree attitude by Marelyn Pielago. Jaylie 2 is her alter ego, the Jaylie Jaylie wants to be. Jaylie 2 is confident, carefree, adventurous – everything Jaylie is not. Between themselves, they argue and discuss Laura’s “nice to meet you” and that eyebrow, while Jaylie 2 does her best to reassure Jaylie that it doesn’t mean anything. And besides, what if it does mean something? Who is Laura anyway?

This is a really entertaining and insightful show. It’s abundantly clear that Wayling knows her subject, and her attention to detail drives the piece forward, taking us along as she battles with herself in the form of her alter ego.

It’s also obvious that this show is still in its infancy and needs a lot of work before it’s ready. That includes making it nearly an hour long than it currently is. But the basics are already there so there’s no reason why it can’t be done. Some of the problems are nothing more than a need for a bit more rehearsal and stage time – there needs to be a better flow between the actors when delivering their lines as it’s just a little stiff at the moment. Additionally, Wayling needs to find the right balance for the moments when she screams; all too often it becomes more of an unnecessary screech – you start to worry about her vocal cords!

While these can be ironed out in the rehearsal room, Wayling will have more work to do on the rewrites. There’s a great framework here to work with, but now it needs to be more carefully fleshed out. Some scenes work better than others, and it’s up to Wayling to figure out what to leave out and what to keep. The clever use of the screen must stay, including the fun ‘interaction graph’ which could be expanded, but the club scenes would be at the top of my ‘cut list’. Although the dancing must stay! ‘Dance like nobody’s watching’ is the phrase that springs to mind!

Eat, sleep, think, repeat is already an entertaining show that explores fears in a way that really helps explain why they can be so paralyzing. But there are plenty of reasons to believe it will come back even better once Wayling has the time to sit down and figure out how to proceed.

Written by: Jaylie Wayling
Director: Emma Sigurdsson
Produced by: Pending Theatre Company

Eat, sleep, think, repeat was played for one night only as part of the Camden Fringe.

Read more about this show in our current interview here.