The Old Red Lion Theatre – until 21 April. Reviewed by Claire Roderick
4****
Jackie Kennedy is quoted as saying “If school days are the happiest days of your life, I’m hanging myself with my skip-rope tonight.” The pressures of walking the social tightrope between school superstar and school freak can still send shivers of painful mortifying remembrance down the spine well into adult life, but most of us use these experiences to grow stronger. But what if something happens that stops your life in its tracks, leaving you scarred and haunted by memories of a single terrible choice made on one fateful school day for the rest of your life?
Kenneth Emson’s Plastic is the story of just such a day. Ben (Thomas Coombes) and Jack (Louis Greatorex) have been best mates forever, and in senior school Ben’s peculiarities mean they are easy targets. Their friend Lisa (Madison Clare) has been accepted by the popular girls and is leaving the boys behind as she gets involved with Kev (Mark Weinman) an older lad who’s already left school. As Kev prepares for the evening that he and Lisa will finally have sex, the three youngsters meet at the school gates to bunk off.
The story is told through a mix of verse and prose, playing with the idea of shared memories and spread of urban myth. The more lyrical, flowing moments are often recurring – the shared memories of the school children with the easy rhythm of a tale often retold. The overlapping monologues, handled deftly by the stellar cast, twist and turn around each other, building each protagonist’s view of events and keeping the audience guessing. Amid the drama there are plenty of laughs, some of recognition, and lots at great one-liners. The petty little things that had such importance and impact at school are brought up – wearing the wrong shoes, having the wrong collar on your shirt – all the things that can make and break reputations.
Director Josh Roche keeps the cast moving around the monochrome football pitch as the plot unfolds, with the cast controlling some of the lighting effects themselves through an intriguing system of colour changing bulbs on runners. The cast all manage to capture the spirit of their characters in the short running time – Mark Weinman is sweet but pitiful as the star of the football team who just can’t get a break in the real world and can never quite leave school behind, while Thomas Coombes is in turns heart-breaking and horrifying as Ben, harbouring so much pent up anger and hatred that is released through feral howls. Louis Greatorex is fantastic as Jack, seemingly laid back and loyal and full of school boy banter, and Madison Clare makes a stunning debut portraying the turmoil of a teenage girl who just wants to be accepted by people she doesn’t even like.
There will be something recognisable in Plastic for every audience member, but this isn’t a nostalgia-fest, it’s a smart, mesmerising production that plays with the cycle of memory and myth grounded in everyday, ordinary lives. A must-see.