A strong season at the Arcola continues with Wiebke Green’s production of Philip Ridley’s play, which was seen as a streamed release via Southwark Playhouse during the pandemic. Described as unnerving and gripping by the New York Times, it tells of a young artist who as a teenager had the world at his feet and admiring his large scale murals. So how did it all go wrong for Sasha, and what happened to his early promise? The device in which we see both Sasha’s inner and outer worlds works well in a one person show which is savage, biting and hilariously bilious.
Following a critically acclaimed streaming run at Southwark Playhouse. Darkly comic and deeply compelling The Poltergeist is “a tour-de-force performance from Joseph Potter” (Theatre Weekly) as Sasha. This one-man show is about art, family, memory, and being haunted by the life we never lived. At fifteen Sasha was called an art world prodigy. Celebrities wanted to buy his paintings. His first exhibition was going to make him a superstar. But now he lives in a run-down flat, with his out-of-work boyfriend, and no one’s even heard of him…What went wrong? A New York Times Critic’s Choice, this production reunites the original company with Wiebke Green directing Joseph Potter.