AN INTERVENTION
The Space
★★★½
“intense, but also very funny”
You would not expect a play by the writer of TV series Dr Foster to be comfortable and this one isn’t. Mike Bartlett’s short but compelling two-hander drama, ‘An Intervention’, is performing at The Space and is, if you are interested in the way relationships can turn on a flipped coin, a very worthwhile evening.
‘An Intervention’ is about friendship and conflict. There are two conflicts here. In the background is war in the Middle East (Iraq?). In the foreground are two young people whose friendship is based on forthright conversation, but who are on opposite sides when it comes to their views on political engagement. Who supports intervention, and why, and who does not? This is the divisive question underlying their tense dialogue.
Theirs is not the only relationship in focus. Offstage, there is another relationship, and another potential conflict, playing out. There are others. What is the impact of other people in your life on your core friendship? The two – very different – characters on stage (we do not know their names) are a man and a woman, but they could easily be of any gender. This is a microscope on the choices you make and your conduct in working things through.
The 90-minute play, potentially tragic, is intense, but also very funny. Life is funny, right? The dialogue wrings out the humour in everyday misunderstandings and weaknesses. The audience responded appropriately.
Dom Stephens is the director of this version. His two ‘puppets’ (there is something of the Punch and Judy here) are played ably by Neila Stephens and Tom Zachar. The Space is a community arts centre dedicated to supporting new artists and as ‘An Intervention’ is only the third play put on by the company Mop N Bucket (as far as I could find out), I am guessing this is still experimental work for all of them which makes the production usefully sparse, and very honest. It also accounts for the slight wobbliness of some of the acting. Neila’s character is a drunk for much of the play. Acting partial inebriation (a scale of 4 to 9 is mentioned) is extremely hard to handle, and Neila manages to remain coherent and convincing. Tom’s character is also a challenge. He has to be stable and stoic in the face of attack from Neila’s character, but convey vulnerability in his dilemmas. He navigates this successfully.
This is not easy stuff. But the company is skilled in keeping the play tight – the only dressing in the cavernous space is recorded protest music and echoes of war used to knit the scenes together. It is also the right choice to have only a small audience (32 seats) placed physically close to the action. We were fully engaged in seeing these two people work out how alone they can feel and, finally, what they mean to each other.
AN INTERVENTION
The Space
Reviewed on 27th August 2025
by Louise Sibley
Recent reviews from this venue:
A KISS FOR CINDERELLA | ★★★ | December 2024
