King’s
Theatre, Edinburgh
Four
stars
Ghosts
are everywhere in Sally Abbott’s new play, brought to life by co-directors Kathy
Burke and Scott Graham in Frantic Assembly’s twenty-fifth anniversary touring production.
Not that
anyone is talking to each other about it, preferring to offload their woes to
the audience as one might to a diary, a blog or to the entire world by way of
social media. Anything, then, but talking face to face, be it estranged sisters
Ange and Clare, under-achieving mum Josie and her high-flying son Manny, or
taxi driver Graham and his wife Bex.
Each is
kept apart by designer Morgan Large’s choreographed array of people-sized movable
walls that are burled around by the cast between scenes, the frosted glass on
each making any connection even harder. As lives intersect despite themselves,
an accidental community of sorts is revealed that exposes an inherent good in
people.
Frantic
Assembly may have come of age, but they’re still dealing with the same themes
of fragmented lives and dysfunctional relationships they built their reputation
on back in the techno-soundtracked 1990s. As co-produced with Theatre Royal
Plymouth and Curve, with three separate plots criss-crossing each other, Abbot’s
play has the feel of an entire mini-series condensed into a couple of hours.
A
tenderness permeates throughout Abbott’s script, and when people actually do
start talking to each other – and listening – in the second half, the various
causes of the collective anxiety on show become clear. As Ange and Clare, Charlotte
Bate and Polly Frame lay bare the roots of the siblings’ self-destructive
narcissism. Much more affecting, Chizzy Akudolu and Caleb Roberts find their
own road to reunification as Josie and Manny while Andrew Turner’s Graham and
Simone Saunders’ Bex offer a more emotional form of salvation.
For all
the busyness of the production, Abbot has created an of-the-moment drama about
loss, grief, healing and the power of everyday kindness that suggests talking
things out is a whole lot healthier than suffering in silence.
The Herald, February 19th 2020
ends
Comments