REVIEW: National Theatre Live's Fleabag
by Grace Oeth
via National Theatre Live
During one of the two sold-out showings of Fleabag at a new location of Iowa City’s independent movie theater, Filmscene, I sat amongst friends and strangers alike to watch Phoebe Waller-Bridge bring to life a character we have come to love… again. In its original form, Fleabag was a one-woman show, written and performed by Waller-Bridge to critical acclaim in the United Kingdom in 2013. After it got picked up by Amazon Prime and made into an award-winning television show from 2016-2019, Fleabag returned to its theatrical routes on New York City’s Broadway, as well as a sold-out run in London’s West End—which is how it got into the hands of National Theatre Live.
Before the show began, the audience sat through nearly forty-five minutes of information and promotion pertaining to National Theatre Live, the organization dedicated to recording live performances in the UK and broadcasting them to cinema screens across the world. Many types of performances are distributed by National Theatre Live, including Shakespeare plays, farcical musicals, and hour-long monologues about morally-complex, millenial women.
Doubtless most—if not all—of the spectators in the dark theatre had seen the television rendition of Waller-Bridge’s character before, so the expectations were high: we had a certain love for Fleabag and were antsy to learn more. I, especially, was curious. How would this be different? How much could Waller-Bridge fit in one hour what she had managed to fit into an entire series? Surely some things had to have been similar, or else it wouldn’t be the same Fleabag, now would it?
Phoebe Waller-Bridge via National Theatre Live
On a single, high-topped chair, in the middle of a small stage, Phoebe Waller-Bridge sat down for an interview with an invisible man, which would catapult into the complex story of why she needed to be there in the first place. The story revealed that Fleabag had a guinea-pig-themed cafe that she started with her best friend, Boo. Through a series of unfortunate events, with Boo’s, and Fleabag on her own, the cafe is revealed to be failing. This is only a basic structure of what is presented in Fleabag, for it as rich in plot as it is in characters, which speaks miles considering Waller-Bridge is the only person to appear on stage.
What the atmosphere of a theatre presents rather than a television show is the fact that the performer must be louder, more expressive, and conscious of the space they possess. No doubt there are vulnerable, quiet, and heavy moments throughout the play, but with the added element of a large, sitting audience, there comes a certain need for everyone to hear the performer, feel with the performer, understand the performer. Fleabag is expressive and emotional as it is, but rather than witnessing the show through the subtleties of a silver screen, the movements of this empathetic symphony are put on full blast for all to see—even the people in the cheap seats.
“When will people realize that people are all we’ve got.”
The major differences between the one-act play and the television series are a few different characters and a few minor plot changes. Most everything is the same, which makes sense as Phoebe Waller-Bridge was set on creating an entire TV show dedicated to a piece of work people already loved. But there is one element of the one-act play not as relevant to the series: a flamboyant eldery man named Joe, who is a regular at Fleabag’s guinea pig cafe. He briefly appears in the second season of Amazon’s Fleabag, but only as the butt of a joke shared between Fleabag and her sister, Claire. But within the play, Joe has a much larger role, and adds depth to the lonely situation Fleabag possesses. Waller-Bridge describes how every morning, at eleven in the morning, Joe comes into the shop—loudly, and with a bang. He calls her “love,” and “sweetie,” but in a non-creepy, paternal way. The audience begins to understand this man as much as Fleabag does, and as a result, feels the gravity of a moment where Joe enters the cafe in a depressed and solemn mood. Fleabag attempts to comfort him and asks what is wrong, but he only replies by saying something about how terrible people treat other people in this world. Fleabag, in an effort to lighten the mood, responds, “Yeah, people fucking suck.” To that, Joe denies her statement. He says, “When will people realize that people are all we’ve got.” Waller-Bridge has many lines, both in her television show and her play, that resonates among audiences, and speaks to the human experience. This line from Joe is undoubtedly one of them but is also a look into what Fleabag is all about—human connections.
Fleabag, in her messiest, most chaotic, and most mischievous state, is still loveable. Throughout the course of the story, she is constantly grasping for some semblance of love, whether that be through her friendship with Boo, her relationship with her family, or her sexual escapades with various men. But one connection she continues to have, despite it all, is the one she maintains with her audience. The performance’s repeated and heavy use of fourth-wall breaks, which solidifies and builds upon the character-audience relationship Fleabag relies upon, is one of the main reasons Fleabag’s debut as a television show was so compelling. That story-telling device derives from the monological structure of the original one-act play. For an entire hour, it is just Fleabag, acting out and reacting as different characters, channeling her complex story through her body and delivering it to us, her witnesses. It is just her and us. We watch a woman sit and talk, but we almost do so as friends. Through empathy, and for most of the people in that theatre that day, through fondness, we listen and understand. The ingenius of the character of Fleabag is her realistic—albeit messy—character that could exist in the world as we know it today, and therefore, she becomes someone who we can build a real connection to, whether it be through a television series or a one-woman show. Fleabag’s relatability and her engagement with her audience, creates an intimate space for us to accept her and love her, despite the chaos she may bring. We are here for Fleabag, just as Fleabag will always be there for us.