Find Your way Home
Etcetera Theatre
Reviewed – 13th February 2018
★★★★
“Hopkins’ work seriously hits home”
Amongst the brightly coloured crochet throws, generic wall hangings and psychedelic background music, a tension is brewing. At first, nothing appears out of the ordinary – anyone could live here. Affectionately referred to as Julie, the main occupant however is Julian (performed by Julian Bailey-Jones) who rapidly begins to show us the many different sides to his personality, rage very closely mixed in with a concoction of love and neediness.
Julian is in his apartment with a young man (George Turner) he has spent the night with, when there is a knock on the door. He opens the door and simultaneously his past, resulting in a display of despair, hurt and confusion. It is Alan (Anthony Cord) an older man who left him in order to preserve his life with his wife and children. Cord portrays a man who is both deeply ashamed of his homosexual tendencies but also of the betrayal he has caused towards Julie. Shocked and also a little hopeful, Alan is allowed into the apartment and there the hysteria begins.
Hopkins’ work seriously hits home and speaks to anyone in a relationship – when you have experienced pain, could you and should you trust again? Julia Faulkner plays Jackie, Alan’s wife and delivers a performance that is heartbreakingly fantastic. She goes through such a range of emotions, from pleading with her husband to return home to implying that if he doesn’t, he may not have access to his children. ‘You haven’t loved me for fifteen years!’ she cries when she feels the last of her husband slip away from her. Over the course of the second half of the show, you feel as though you’re able to see into the whole of their twenty year marriage.
The Etcetera theatre in Camden worked well for this performance as you really are right there in the middle of the drama, you’re forced to analyse each move and expression. Being set in Julie’s colourful yet depressing apartment throughout the whole show is uncomfortable and stifling, a perfect portrayal of a lack of escape from a dire situation.
Reviewed by Stephanie Legg
Find Your way Home
Etcetera Theatre until 4th March
Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com
