AN AMBITIOUS CONCEPT THAT STRUGGLES TO JUSTIFY THE EXPANSION

By Sophie Clark | Muck Rack Portfolio ⭐⭐ | Press Invite

The Uncontainable Nausea of Alec Baldwin, by writer/director Tommaso Giacomin from TG Works, is a multi-disciplinary approach to discussing anxiety about the modern age. 

The play was selected as a 15-minute piece for a young directors’ showcase at the Venice Theatre Biennale. Unfortunately, when stretched out to 90 minutes, major parts of it do not work. 

I’ll start with what does work.

James Aldred, in the lead role, was genuinely moving in the moments where he got to actually speak. And, the whole cast certainly threw themselves into theatre with the type of honesty and openness that theatre provokes and inspires, which I really appreciated. 

Additionally, the show’s approach to mocking AI therapy and ChatGPT-speak was pretty funny, particularly the use of emojis. I’m interested to see how AI commentary gets incorporated into theatre, and while this was quite on the nose it was definitely true to the moment we’re living in. 

I thought the scenes “created” by AI were also compelling, and an interesting way to look at how AI morphs our perspective.

Unfortunately, on to what doesn’t work.

Firstly, in the programme notes TG Works proclaims to ask “what theatre can – and must – be today.” Something I believe theatre really must do is start on time. 

The play was set to begin at 7:30, but the house doors did not open until 7:33. Totally understandable for a preview, but something that really should have been ironed out on press night, and unfortunately left me with the air of student theatre which hung over much of the rest of the piece.

My major critique of the play is that I really don’t know why they decided to pin the main character to Alec Baldwin. 

Yes, I know, he was involved in a serious accident which left a woman, Halyna Hutchins, dead. However, he is such a bizarre figure beyond that — raising a billion kids with his Bostonian wife, who is still pretending to be Spanish to name just one of his oddities — that tying the emotional heft of this play to Baldwin just did not ring true or fair. 

I was left frustrated that Giacomin picked someone with so much material to mine from, and merely tapped vaguely around his most extreme headline. 

I was also baffled by some of the play’s choices. I understand it was going for avant-garde, and I’m leaving space for the fact that I’m maybe just not the audience for that, but I couldn’t get for the life of me why there was a clowning segment with a Henry Hoover or a man with a piñata for a head. 

And, although those could be interpreted as ‘alternative’, the directorial choice to project some of the play using an iPhone felt more like a budget Jamie Lloyd than a commentary on screens. 

Additionally, I can completely relate to someone feeling constantly sick over the endless images of war on their phone. I feel sick much of the time myself. But that narrative doesn’t arrive until the very end of the play. I found it incredibly difficult to feel any sort of relationship to the main character without understanding where anything he was doing was coming from. This last issue can potentially be fixed with a strong edit. 

If you’re looking for something with a compelling cast and a truly ‘lived-in’ theatrical experience, then I’d say check this out. 

That said, I often found myself checking the time, which was conveniently provided to me during a “provoking” interlude where the live news was streamed into the theatre. 

The Uncontainable Nausea Of Alec Baldwin is running at New Diorama Theatre until Tuesday 24 March.

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Photo Credit: David Monteith-Hodge Photographise