REVIEW: Living with the Lights On @ The Citizens' Theatre
My first encounter with Mark Lockyer was when I was participating in a class he was taking as part of a summer course at the Royal Shakespeare Company whilst he was playing in The Alchemist. I was instantly intrigued by both his energy and sense of weight in his personality - he seemed like a man who had "seen some stuff".
When I later heard that his one man show, Living with the Lights on, something I'd originally missed in London, was now touring and coming to Glasgow, I was excited to finally see him in action as a performer.
Living with the Lights on is an autobiographical blend between performance and reality. Welcomed into the Citizens' Theatre's Circle Studio by Lockyer himself, we are guided to a table with tea and biscuits for us all to take. The stage is relatively bare, with only a couple of other objects; a table, a radio player, a guitar, some boards; and from something so minimal comes traditional storytelling at it's best.
Over the course of around an hour, Lockyer takes us through the most gruelling recent years of his life. From being on stage in the RSC and having a on-stage breakdown during Romeo and Juliet in which he played Malvolio, to setting fire to his ex-girlfriends flat, experiencing alcoholism, and to finally finding help and a diagnosis.
His skill as a performer is clearly shown as he seamlessly slips between various accents and body languages, characterising all of the crucial people in his story, - not least, his own version of the devil, whom he calls "Beez" (short for Beelzebub"). Beez tells Mark he is his "MD", which Lockyer wittily associates to "Musical Director" - only later does he make the connection that Beez is actually his Manic Depression.
Lockyer was as much of a presense as I remembered, with his comfort in talking to the audience members, something which continues throughout the show, being both inviting yet unhinging all at once.
It seems clear that Lockyer has indeed "seen some stuff" and to see someone who has started off in theatre, gone through such a gruelling experience, and to end up back on stage, using that to create something that is both so strong and alive as a performance and as a look into mental health is hugely inspiring and envigorating. Once his story had come to its close, Lockyer made one thing very clear - with the craftily witty dramatics of the performance put aside, this was ultimately one hell of a time for him, and indeed anyone who experiences mental health problems. He leaves us on one last note - "Keep going."
