Park Theatre – until 3 June 2023
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
4****
Philip Ridley’s fiercely fraught drama about a family dealing – or not dealing – with past trauma is not an easy watch. The twists and turns as memories are shared, disputed and reimagined come thick and fast as the seemingly controlled life of Steven (Ned Costello) begins to fracture when he discovers his wife Debbie (Katie Buchholz) is pregnant.
At first, Steven appears to be the stable, successful and reliable brother, helping his mother Liz (Kacey Ainsworth) and alcoholic brother Barry (Joseph Potter). Barry is a talented artist, but his chaotic life has prevented him from focussing and achieving. As the brothers and their mother interact, it becomes clear that there is more than one version of events, and each of them has their own reasons for pushing their particular take on the truth. Liz’s steadfast determination to hold her family together and brush over any difficulties has caused the family to evolve into talkers, not listeners, who cannot really express their feelings. Her description of mental health issues and their effects as “the fluey-bug thing” steers the versions of the truth that she hears from her sons. As the play continues, the tension ramps up as Barry and Steven’s memories of their father and his funeral are set at odds and their roles in the family are reversed as Steven succumbs to the fluey-bug thing. The brothers’ final confrontation is staged masterfully on the sparse stage, with the reasons why their fierce, protective love for each other is tinged with guilt and hate finally being voiced. Costello and Potter complement each other brilliantly, with Potter’s manic and jittery Barry in early scenes becoming stiller and threatening as the play progresses and the character finds the strength to finally voice his truth. Costello’s portrayal of Steven’s descent into despair sees him physically squirm as he performs mental acrobatics to retain control of events. He is both frightening and pathetic as childish anger and pettiness erupt but watching him find the will and strength to refute Barry’s truth and cruelly and gleefully reassert his own version of their past, reclaiming control is frankly horrible as his gaslighting becomes turbocharged. Under Max Harrison’s direction, the change in dynamics of the brothers’ relationship is made clear physically as well as verbally, with the dominant man always circling their prey.
Kacey Ainsworth is wonderful as Jean, complicit in some of the lies the family tells itself but burning with love for her boys. Katie Buchholz is a blast as Debbie, the catalyst for the family breakdown and suspicious of her husband’s actions. The scenes between Debbie and Steven are full of marital tension, but compared to what the brothers are dealing with, these scenes are a welcome comic relief.
Staged in the round, Kit Hinchcliffe’s slick set has four benches around the edge of the stage. This means that the characters are sometimes speaking with their back to you, but the person they are talking to is always visible, so you see their reactions and cannot judge the verity of the speaker – adding to the atmosphere of doubting who to believe.
The cast portray the disturbing and frustrating characters brilliantly, tackling many questions about memory, truth and conflicting agendas with a rapier sharp touch. An excellent production.