The Vaults, London
Ian Bonar and Rob Watt have brought their one-man play Be Prepared to the VAULT Festival for a short run. This was Bonar’s first play, which premièred at the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and since then he has had another play long-listed for the Bruntwood Prize. He was also part of the Orange Tree Writers Collective two years ago. Watt (dramaturg and director) is a Headlong Theatre Associate, as well as a lead artist at the Lyric Hammersmith.
The play was inspired by Bonar’s experiences leading up to and following his father’s death – around the same time he also discovered some of his grandad’s long lost memories in an old journal.
The character we see onstage (Tom) has recently lost his dad, but instead of finding a relative’s journal he starts receiving phone calls from someone called Mr Chambers, who has mistakenly dialled the number; he was trying to get through the funeral director but got a single digit wrong. He keeps calling and, after Tom’s initial grief-stricken frustration and anger turns to curiosity and concern, tells some slightly jumbled stories from his life that start to mingle with Tom’s own.
It’s cleverly conceived, as it is set up as a wake at which Tom has (perhaps ill-advisedly) decided to get up to say a few words. Remembering the motto from his time in the Scouts, he has decided to “be prepared” and even brought a portable keyboard along in case that could be of any use.
It’s a logical and well-known setting for an individual to stand up and tell stories about someone’s life, as well as use it to work through grief – no matter how strange some of the methods may be, as Bonar and Watt discovered how individual a process this is. Some of his grandad’s words have been used verbatim, which adds a personal, authentic touch, and really helps to conjure up some of the images described.
After a while, Mr Chambers’ memories mix with Tom’s own and it’s easy to get a little lost through Tom’s slightly chaotic speech – but it is incredibly compelling nonetheless. There are also some very funny moments, from Tom’s sheer awkwardness at trying to make a speech (even attempting to compose a song about his suit), to his re-enactments of Mr Chambers’ stories as they take over. Bonar gives a very natural performance, engaging with the audience while he works through the memories.
