#NoFilter is a new musical lasting 50 minutes, currently being performed in the Forest Theatre in the Greenside @ George Street venue.
It is a musical about finding love in the digital age, and how not everything that is shared online is real or accurate to a person’s life. It largely follows three couples: the first being Pandora (Eva-Marie Blaire) and Candor (Sirus Desnoes), who meet on Tinder and begin to date. Conversely, Savannah (Natalie Gray) and King (Aaron Andrews) meet in a restaurant after Savannah had a difficult break-up with their partner Archie (Zia Marsh), and Savannah is notably the only character who abstains from social media. Finally, the audience meets Sina (Jamie Douglas-Turner), who runs an OnlyFans, and Ember (Vincenzo Dipasquale), who is a close friend of all the other characters in the show.
The soundtrack of #NoFilter is incredibly catchy, and the cast all have very strong voices; however, there were some issues with the audio, which made it hard to hear the lyrics (particularly in the slower, sadder songs). Despite this, the upbeat musical numbers were highly enjoyable—in particular, Gray’s first song about Archie’s relationship with drugs and alcohol (and its later reprise) was incredibly powerful, and the choreography in Douglas-Turner’s first song was exceptional.
Gray and Andrews have a lot of chemistry, and the way that they interact onstage makes their narrative more believable and encourages the audience to root for them. Dipasquale is very charismatic when they address the audience, and both Blaire and Desnoes give very intense and compelling performances, which will leave the audience feeling sympathetic to both characters.
#NoFilter has a lot of potential; however, it tries to fit in a lot of complex storylines into less than an hour, meaning that some of these stories feel rushed and lacking in completion. This, paired with the audio issues, gives the show an unpolished feel to it. Despite this, it has a good soundtrack, a talented cast, a compelling premise, and is an enjoyable watch.
