"By Proxy". Burton Taylor Studio
This review was written for Daily Information, and appears on their website . Out on Gloucester Green at 7pm, the sun was still shining, and Oxford’s alfresco café culture was in full swing. Young lovers were dunking straws in their Aperol Spritzers. All was right with the world. Meanwhile, just a few steps away, in the Burton Taylor Studio, By Proxy was painting a much darker picture. Less café culture; more coercive control. At barely 60 minutes, this is a little gem of a play from first-time writer and director Imee Marriott. It traces the relationship between two teenagers, Kit and Jo, as they leave school, go to university, and start to make their way in the world (or not). As happens with so many school friendships, their paths diverge, and what was once a deep bond of love ultimately evaporates. In the case of By Proxy however the parting of the ways between Kit and Jo is cataclysmic, psychologically disturbing, and complicated by betrayal, obsession and terrible secrets that ...