Review: Climbers is technically brilliant, but is that enough?
Written by Elly D’Arcy, directed by Monique Marani
Review by Chelsea Shaw
Rosalind and Lucy are roommates in the all-girls dorms of Newnham College, having been lucky enough to attend Cambridge University. It’s the 1930s and women like Rosalind and Lucy do not get awarded the degrees they have earned. Desperate for freedom and excitement, both find themselves swept into romances with the boys who have clambered onto their rooftop – until things take a turn for the worse.
Elly D’Arcy’s play Climbers is inspired by The Night Climbers of Cambridge, a book written under the pen name Whipplesnaith, detailing the secret society of students who explored the campus rooftops in the 1930s. D’Arcy and director Monique Marani take this romantic ideal of late-night thrills and create a work characterised by decadence reminiscent of romantic epics. D’Arcy’s writing is witty and endearing, showcasing a range of fleshed-out characters who were notably distinctive from each other. Even the Communist girl group, who were initially played as a parody of left-wing university clubs, became fully realized by the show’s end.
With skilful performances from most of the cast, I was drawn to minor characters that didn’t have much weight on the story. For example, Tommy (Tahlia Jameson) was a charming rapscallion of a girl whose self-satisfied smirk had me keeling over each time it was directed towards the audience. Jameson’s physicality and bold composure were impossible to ignore, and I found myself directing my eyes to her even when she wasn’t speaking.
On a technical level, there is so much talent in Climbers that it’s hard to know where to begin. A standout was Savannah Wegman’s set and costume design; her use of billowing white cloth allowed actors to create space and dimension in a compelling and playful way. Georgie Wolfe’s dreamy lighting created a world of ethereal wonder in tandem with the set. In one scene, Alex (Sebastian Li) hangs from the framework of Wegman’s creation, and faux-morning light slowly creeps in. By sheer luck, I was in the right place at the right time to see the light break above his neck as he threw back his head and spill into the smoke hovering in the foreground. It was a magical piece of work that made me audibly gasp.
And yet, with all this talent, Climbers’ politics feels a little stale. Gendered violence and discrimination are the conflicts that drive the story forward. However, given the time and setting, we are only exposed to these conflicts through the lens of a certain class: privileged white people. The narrative seems to skirt around this fact as much as it can, which is ironic given the group of Communist girls planning the next revolution in their dorm room. It seems that there is an unspoken agreement that women don’t exist in the same spaces as “the bourgeoisie”, mainly because they are never brought up as a threat to the working class in this play.
When women like Rosalind and Lucy are portrayed this way, we are presented with a familiar and uncomplicated depiction of feminism: these women are just as smart and capable as men, but power structures beyond their individual control limit them. Men capable of sexual assault often get away with it because of these power structures. The story is as clear-cut as that, but these are already well-known truths that have been explored beyond the point of interest. By 2023, I would hope that people were aware that women weren’t seen as equal to men in the 1930s – but what does this say about our predicament now?
As a result, the overall message of female empowerment in Climbers fell flat for me. In the climax of the second act, the women of Cambridge scale the rooftops with homemade banners in retribution for Lucy after her sexual assault – an act of solidarity and love. A sweeping instrumental score by Justin Gardam builds the tension in their climb until finally, their message unfurls… and we are left with barely legible writing on sheets that are, depending on where you are seated, obscured by the set. I was unable to feel any sense of triumph as there was nothing concrete for me to grasp onto, nothing that I could read or read into.
On the day I saw Climbers, I had just finished work and the idea of watching a 2-hour play felt daunting. But by the time the play was done, I found I had forgotten about my exhaustion. Sometimes, watching something beautiful and unchallenging feels nice. While D’Arcy’s exploration of feminism and sexual assault lacks the depth needed for a satisfying exploration of both ideas, Climbers is nonetheless an entertaining show.
Climbers played at fortyfive downstairs from June 1 - 11. Find more information here.
Images by Harrison Baker
Chelsea was eleven when her grandfather broke the news she’d probably never get into Oxford. When she’s not working in hospo she takes life-drawing classes and watches more than her fair share of theatre.
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