This is an impressive new play by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, multi-layered, covering lots of relevant contemporary issues. It illustrates how seemingly happy lives can unravel very quickly, triggered by just one event. Though ultimately very sad, I found it enthralling; I particularly liked it’s objectivity and authenticity. It’s one of the best things I’ve seen at the Royal Court in recent years.
Gary & Nicky are struggling financially but are happily married, both working, with three kids. Gary’s friend Mark and sister Karen are often around, and Mo and Anjum, friends through their children, are regular visitors too, all currently preoccupied with preparations for their kids’ school fair and their respective son’s next schools. On Mark’s birthday, Gary & Mark’s boss Victoria comes back from the pub with them. She seems lonely and rather envious of this close community. She drinks a bit too much and makes some racist comments that sends this close-knit group along a path that leads to the destruction of relationships in just two weeks.
In Michael Buffong’s production, the play grabs you quickly and maintains its pace and engagement for the whole 100 minutes without interval. Anna Fleischle’s clever design moves us speedily from Gary & Nicky’s council flat to Gary & Mark’s workplace, and back. It’s a great set of performances, particularly given the emotional journey’s they all have to make, from seven fine actors. At first all of their characters are sympathetic, but by the end it’s really only one, as each does or displays something that loses our empathy with them.
There’s a thread running between this and two other new plays I’ve seen this month – Fairview and Snowflake – but this is in many ways the best. A definite recommendation from me.
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