Live Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne – until 28th October2023
Reviewed by Sandra Little
4****
This latest offering from Live Theatre is a 3 part play based around the McCarthy family’s gatherings at a funeral, a wedding and a christening, over a period of 5 years. The play is described by Live Theatre as the centrepiece of their 50th anniversary season and is written by Elijah Young. The action takes place around the buffet table in a fairly sparse room and throughout the course of the play we meet five family members.
The first buffet follows a Catholic funeral for Evelyn’s (Jane Holman) husband where family tensions begin to emerge. Evelyn is not happy with her son David (Jim Kitson) and he accuses her of holding grudges. There are tense conversations about the will and how to deal with Evelyn’s husband’s ashes. Despite the gloom of this scene there is also humour. At one point Evelyn tells her family that they are divvying up her husband’s ashes not a traybake!
Act two takes us to the buffet for the wedding of David and his new wife Ayeesha, played by Amara Karen. This act involves a great deal of melodrama, argument and a fight! There is a dance routine but it’s definitely no competition for Strictly ! I felt that this was the most comedic of the three acts, however serious family tensions emerged . Suffice to say Evelyn arrives with an item that does not help the wedding atmosphere! She continues to express her strong opinions and tells other guests that she thinks that choosing purple as a colour theme makes the room look like a Dairy Milk advertisement!
The final scene is a Christening buffet. Family tensions continue to prevail and one of these issues, that runs throughout the whole play, is the relationship between David and his gay son Ellis, played by Nick Blakely. Ellis finds these family occasions very difficult to deal with for a host of reasons, however the final scene does have a very touching conclusion and I felt that there was tenderness and love demonstrated that people often struggle to express.
Throughout the play themes relating to loyalty, feelings of belonging, and also clashes of personality are explored. It is often apparently minor issues, such as seating arrangements at the wedding, that have a major impact on family relationships. I did enjoy this performance and found it an interesting and entertaining way to present a fairly familiar subject, namely family conflict. The themes explored will, I suspect, strike a chord with many members of the audience.
This play is recommended for ages over 14+ and does contain strong language.