Seven Dials Playhouse – until 20 September 2025
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
2**
The metaphor of the changing tides of the ocean and the building storm hang heavy over Miranda Lapworth’s play. Beginning as an interesting relationship drama as a retired couple move to their beach house as they come to terms with a cancer diagnosis, Lapworth’s writing is sharp and witty. The dynamics of Lou and Jack (Jenny Lloyd-Lyons and Neil Sellman) are fascinating, with their love for playing games together hinting at emotional gamesmanship as well. Their daughter Mariana (Steph Sarrat) is a daddy’s girl – visually balking at her mother, who distrusts Mariana’s partner Isobel (Sarah Cameron-West). The reasons for the fractured mother-daughter relationship are never fully explained, and Mariana and her mother act like petulant children when they are around each other. The first act ends with a tragedy that piles more angst and obstacles on the women’s relationship – and the long, long road to reconciliation of the second act.
The beach house is well-imagined in the intricate set, but there is too much focus on irrelevant props, with the crew coming on between scenes to place items simply for an actor to pick them up 30 seconds into the next scene and put them on a shelf. This drags out the play even more and is a huge distraction. The set is also too far forward on the stage and needs reconfiguring. Many scenes are played on seats very close to the audience, meaning that the first row has a wonderful view, but a lot of us were craning our necks to catch sight of the top of the cast’s heads, if we were lucky, during what were meant to be very emotional moments. Hopefully, the audience sightlines will be better considered in the next venues.
The talented cast do their best, but the characters and their choices, especially in the second act, become very cliched and it begins to feel like a family therapy session. Lapworth is obviously a talented writer – there are some wonderful musing and longing speeches and gorgeous wordplay as Lou and Neil sit together, but these really serve no purpose to the story and feel like passages from a novelisation rather than a play. The cycles of angst, discovery and attempted healing becomes repetitive, stretching out what could have been a focussed and intimate 90 minute drama into a sprawling production that begins to feels a little like The Return of the King with its many false endings as every single thread is tied up neatly. A talented dramaturg could shape this into a more engaging play.
Storms, Maybe Snow plays at:
Union Theatre, Southwark 30th September – 2nd October
Drayton Arms Theatre 4th – 8th November