Review of Exclusive Yarns

Review of Exclusive Yarns

Review

Recently I went to see Exclusive Yarns, a small, modern production

that was shown at The Studio, which is part of The New Wimbledon

Theatre. Exclusive Yarns is a comedy, based on a type of soap opera

which is presented in a very melodramatic way. The cast was made up of

three women, three men and one extra, which was a male who played a

female but remained nameless and silent throughout.

The play was all based around a soap opera called 'Exclusive Yarns'

which stars four women- Pippa, Amanda, Estelle and Tamara. It started

with and then carried on showing clips of this soap with these four

women acting out quite ridiculous, complicated plot lines in a very

melodramatic way. To me, this was a sure way of hinting at the fact

that modern soap operas have now become slightly unbelievable in the

respect that the story lines are quite surreal.

The way they introduced the play was starting with the soap, it had a

narrator introducing the scene as if you (the audience) were sitting

at home watching the television, letting you know that 'Exclusive

Yarns' was about to start. The narration was nice as it made the

beginning scene a lot clearer to understand. The narration was also

quite funny as it was in quite a patronising, male voice, (perhaps

implying that because the audience were sitting at home watching a

soap opera they may not be very clever).

The play also featured four male characters- Terry, Ian, Malcolm and

Harry. These men were however, not a part of the soap opera, they were

ordinary men presented in quite a naturalistic way, that actually

loved this soap and their lives were very much fulfilled by watching

it regularly.

Their opening scene started with just three of the men, Terry, Harry

at Ian in Terry and Ian's house but the stage had still been kept as

the same set that 'Exclusive Yarns' had been acted out on. This to me

seemed quite odd at first but then as the fourth man, Malcolm entered,