ARCOLA THEATRE LONDON – UNTIL 8th JUNE 2024
Reviewed by Jackie Thornton
4****
This tense allegorical kitchen sink drama, a companion piece to Suzan-Lori Parks’s Pulitzer prize winning play Topdog/Underdog, makes its UK debut with direction from Femi Elufowoju jr, bringing universal themes of ambition, family-ties, love and the power of redemption to life.
Set right on the US-Mexico border, we never leave the confines of the modest family home where border patrol officer Vet (Peter De Jersey) and his young wife Grace (Ellena Vincent) reside, yet the boundaries and limitations of such a construction are keenly felt in domesticity too.
Austere set and costume design from William Fricker and Rae Smith reinforces the trappings of their circumstances and select hiding spots, use of different levels and rain are put to good effect. Vet, who takes pride in ensuring aliens are kept out of his country, is due to receive a medal for his service so Grace, determined to heal an old family rift, invites estranged son Buddy (Daniel Francis-Swaby) to the ceremony. But Buddy arrives armed with resentment, an ultimatum and (several) hand grenades. Can upbeat and hopeful Grace bring this father and son back together and contain the threat? Or will the titular Book of Grace, a scarlet bound collection of stories about humanity’s propensity for good which Grace keeps hidden under the floorboards, become yet more tinder to Vet’s jealous explosive temper?
It’s in Grace’s secret life that we experience the real power and thematic resonance of this play and a blistering performance from Vincent is vulnerable and convincing. Francis-Swaby is highly watchable as he portrays a young man who longs for, hates and fears his father and it’s also with him that the play finds its lighter, more comic moments, which are but few. De Jersey meanwhile does everything in his power to ensure that we do not warm to Vet.
The first act is quite a slow burn with everyone on a version of their best behaviour but we know there’s a ticking time bomb waiting to go off and act two certainly delivers in cranking up the action with an ending that will take your breath away.