Royal Court Theatre – until 13 July 2024
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
3***
After a successful run in Live Theatre, Newcastle, Stewart Pringle’s new play The Bounds comes to London with football, friendship and folk horror creating a heady and intriguing mix.
It’s 1553 and the Allen Valley Whitsun game is in full swing. The rivalry between the villages of Allendale and Catton for the annual bragging rights is all important to Percy (Ryan Nolan) and Rowan (Lauren Waine). Unfortunately, they have been deployed far from the action, right on the bounds of the vast playing area where they can’t see or hear anything that is going on in the game. Rowan sardonically accepts this as evidence of their football skills, but Percy could probably be the first “It’s coming home” fantasist – steadfastly insisting on their tactical importance and ready to leap into action and take a vital role in the defeat of Catton. The play begins as a buddy comedy, with fantastically written bickering between the pair mixing historical references with bawdy coarseness and familiar modern football supporters’ attitudes. Rowan’s fatalistic listing of Allendale’s miserable record is a hoot – full of violence and fatalities.
The arrival of Sam (Soroosh Lavasani) at their remote position unsettles Percy and Rowan. His obvious wealth and education mark him apart from the villagers they know, and Percy’s resentment becomes increasingly visceral. Sam’s unconvincing reasons for being with them unravel as they chat, but Rowan’s warnings about the dangers of not conforming in the valley fall on deaf ears. This first part of the play is the most successful, as the three outsiders sit powerless on the boundary unable to influence the drama of the football game.
There are some intriguing and thrilling ideas in what follows. As night falls and a parade of mysterious lights appear, Percy is alone as a strange boy (Harry Weston) appears beating the bounds with his father’s men. The realisation that the boy king in London can change the boundaries of the land, with no thought or care of the consequences for the people living off the land itself has a profound effect on Percy and Pringle begins to riff on the powerless and disenfranchised in society as that society destroys itself, mixing folk horror and metaphysical musing before the game ends. The ending doesn’t hit the heights of a winning hat trick, more a solid draw, but there are the bones of a tight and more satisfying conclusion ready to finesse.
Verity Quinn’s earthy set, Drummond Orr’s lighting, Matthew Tuckey’s haunting sound design and Jack McNamara’s assured direction build an increasingly wild and primal atmosphere. The cast are wonderful: Ryan Nolan’s Percy is a wonderfully clueless bundle of pent-up aggression and resentment; Lauren Waine is brilliantly spiky as Rowan and Soroosh Lavasani balances the charm and creepiness perfectly to create unease when his character is onstage.
The Bounds is funny and unsettling as writer Stewart Pringle shifts the boundaries of his play in unexpected directions. Well worth a look.