Trigger warning: POV contains discussions about mental health and themes of suicide. Consequently, this review also mentions some of these themes. Please take care.
POV is a truly unique theatre experience. It pairs a young actor playing Bub, a precocious eleven year old, with two adults actors playing Bub’s parents.
There’s just one slight catch. The adults do not have a script and are unrehearsed. Save for a few scant instructions, they are flying in blind.
Bub (played by Yuna Ahn) is a budding documentary film maker who idolises Warner Herzog. Bub is trying to make a documentary about her family, using actors to stand in for her parents. On the night we attended, her parents were played by Alexandria Steffensen and Gibson Nolte.
Throughout the play, we see her direct her “parents” – from giving them scripts to telling them where to look and what to do. Alexandria and Gibson, graciously allow the young thespian to steer the ship. They roll with the gentle waves and as the play unfolds, ride out the storms.
Yuna is armed with a camera throughout the play. The footage she takes is live streamed across multiple screens around the stage. Consequently, we get a unique montage like view of seeing real-life beind the scenes style footage interspersed with what the camera captures.
Some of the shots are typical of a child who’s excited to play with a camera – up close, random upshots. But others, with the help of the dolly and a little more concentration, feel more filmic.
Perhaps this is metaphorical of Bub’s existence. She wants to create a proper documentary yet is still just a child.
I kept questioning what was real and what was scripted throughout the play. In particular, the last scene with its multiple takes made me wonder if this was Yuna or Bub’s doing.
As the play dipped its toes into serious territory, I wondered if the actors were channelling their experiences into the performance. Alexandria’s description of bipolar disorder was gripping. I felt like she was genuinely trying to guide Yuna with an honest yet sensitive explanation.
Similarly, we are constantly reminded that Yuna is a young actor. Yuna reads out the child safety guidelines for young actors and introduces her chaperone at the beginning of the play.
When the chaperone calls for a break, we wonder if this is a scheduled break. However, it also coincided with a particularly emotional scene. Did the chaperone notice something we didn’t? Was this a mental health break?
Regardless of how much is staged and how much is improv-ed, there is a raw beauty to POV. It is a unique multi-perspective play that shows the thought process and final result.
More importantly, it highlights that perhaps creative freedom is what allows us to express sensitive topics with authenticity and sensitivity.