Ten Out of Ten

Ten Out of Ten is a strange little puzzle of a play. Set loosely in a self-help class, it explores (again loosely) the nature of personal success. What is it? Can it be measured? Does it truly matter? Will it make us happy? 

Sat in four rows of banked chairs, the audience is the class; asked to sit tests, arrange the furniture and dance, we are props, characters and stagehands. Unless you're a fan of immersive participatory theatre, look away now.

For everyone else, there's a fair amount of fun to be had here, especially for those willing to fully embrace the more involving elements of the show. There's also a suggestion of plot, as the Ten Out of Ten team take us through the life of Jennifer – a character whose triumphs and miseries are presented as a list of bullet points. Yet this format is subverted by the insertion of moments of genuine poignancy.

Unfortunately though, the message the piece is trying to convey about the futility of measuring a life in terms of facts and statistics gets a bit lost. The jarring juxtaposition between the self-help classroom setting and the more emotional components of the piece is appreciable only in retrospect: whilst the performance is ongoing, the predominant thought is "What am I going to have to do next?".

However, as an immersive piece of theatre, it's very good fun. But for those who are shy: you've been warned!