At its heart the play is both a portrayal of a family with all its fractured relationships stretching into the past and a portrait of London – and I sincerely loved the way both aspects were explored in the piece. The delicately stranded family relationships were finely drawn and expertly played by Ian Groombridge, Carolyn Tomkinson and Howard Teale. Heartfelt, genuinely fond, truthful, full of soft reminiscence, understandings and misunderstands and underlined by a deep wealth of darkness, disappointment and pain. It was fascinating to watch.
I particularly loved the way memory was evoked – through the use of songs, a selection of which were played throughout; through the use of clothing as both brothers tried on their father’s jacket at different times; through the use of performance as Teale re-enacted painfully his father’s behaviour to him, accent and all; and most memorably for me through the use of lighting – in a moment when caught in a spotlight hidden at the front of the stage, Teale told a story from his own stage days (it was a lovely blurring of the reality they were creating and the reality we were in and made me extremely thankful I had got a side seat to get the full experience).
All these different techniques were beautifully supported by the set, capturing the fragmentary nature of the life we leave behind – scraps of newspapers, pictures of the queen, small models of telephone boxes, stacks of cds – all dominated by half of a London taxi and a wall covered by a large map of London painted with an English flag.
This production boasted an interesting story, strong writing, excellent performances and a wonderful set – if it had just provoked the utter joy and excitement in me that other productions had, it could have been high on my list of favourite productions for the month.
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