★★★

“The energy expended by Samuel and Ward is exhilarating”

The Actors Touring Company revives its production of Dave Harris’s thought-provoking play from Stratford East two years ago with newcomer Clifford Samuel stepping into the role of Tambo alongside Daniel Ward’s original Bones. It’s a strange piece, certainly, with the opening scene revelling in its Beckettian absurdity. Tambo (top hat and tails) and Bones (waist coat and bowler) are minstrels in a fake world of painted scenery and cut-out trees (Set and Costume Designers – Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey and ULTZ).

As the pair’s antics verge closely on clowning, the chemistry between the two actors is immediately evident. But there’s an edge in the comedy which splits this audience; some laughter from the stalls suggests it’s the funniest thing ever, whilst others are hearing the darker overtones. The pair discuss how they can escape their situation; Bones wants to perform cheap tricks for our money, whilst Tambo would like us to understand the history of the black person’s experience.

Moving forward, the pair are now hip-hop stars and the second scene is an extended live performance. The two men bid to out rap each other whilst a DJ at the back mixes the beats. Is it the director himself, Matthew Xia, in his persona of Excalibah behind the mask? Stage smoke and powerful lighting (Ciarán Cunningham) provide the stadium performance atmosphere. The energy expended by Samuel and Ward is exhilarating but for the predominantly white middle-aged audience, it’s also rather bemusing. If there is something to be learnt through the poetry, then we don’t get it.

The futuristic third scene with its Orwellian overtones shakes things up again. The stage is stripped bare and, in a brave piece of writing and direction, our two heroes passively narrate the story of the history of the new world whilst two white robots mime the action. Jaron Lammens and Dru Cripps as X-Bot-1 and X-Bot-2 provide the performance of the night. There’s surely never been a better choreographed and performed scene of robotic movement than this. Disappointingly, a final piece of action important to the ultimate meaning of the play and that should be devastating in its effect misses its punch.

Dave Harris’s play won’t be to everyone’s taste, with the long central hip-hop performance particularly divisive. But there is no questioning the commitment, versatility and brilliance of the performers.

TARANTULA

Arcola Theatre

★★★★

“a magnificent and terrible thing to watch”

Darkness descends into the carefree life of teenager Toni with such unexpected force that breath drains from her lungs. Then ours. Ever after in this heart-wrecking drama, we struggle to regain balance.

Because, by the time this trauma strikes, young Toni has become our friend. Theoretically, the teen – self-deprecating, romantic, smart – occupies the theatre space alone for 90 minutes, but such is her boundless joy at the prospect of a budding romance that we quickly become her BFFs. What should I wear? What about this? Or this? What should I say? Aren’t his eyelashes just the loveliest?

The mechanics of a crush are awkward so she’s eager to crowdsource some insight.

The romance is almost too perfect as first loves must be. They plan a life together over their first shared milkshake. She will be a writer, he will take pictures. They hold hands. Brush arms. The individual kisses merge into one swelling super-kiss…

But the title of the play is Tarantula. The playwright is master weaver Philip Ridley. Nothing can be as straightforwardly simple as snogging by moonlight.

Something’s coming. Darkness is coming. The clue is in the moments of fugue state when Toni mentions her prospect’s name – Michael. Is she lovestruck? Or something-else-struck?
We soon find out.

You cannot take your eyes off Georgie Henley, who plays Toni. She won’t let you. As the naive schoolgirl, she is mercurial and giddy and all the things a girl can and should be. She dares you not to delight in her. Later, that same thrill is transmuted by her experience into something forced and manic. She is the same but different. The same but shrill. She challenges you to spot the artifice of her carefully constructed veneer of uber-glee.

Under Wiebke Green’s direction, the trauma that visits Toni is physical. It stalks her endlessly and then – in a quite astonishing and visceral way – it occupies her. She struggles to breathe. She is paralysed. She is felled. She remembers.

This parasitical body snatcher is a composite of unresolved pain and guilt and grief. Because one version of Toni died that day – the bright Oxford-bound lover of books and do-gooding school clubs – and this uncanny valley version took her place. What’s left is a too-keen gym bunny who urgently wants to be the hero of everybody’s tale.

To achieve this transformation, Ridley’s script is full of character, heart and keen detail. His lusty appetite for story, the darker the better, help to create a topical slice of gothic horror lightened by moments of utmost tenderness. It is perhaps 10 minutes too long, especially in the later stages, but accomplished, nevertheless.

For all the cleverness, laughter and texture in the script, it is the sinister contortions of Georgie Henley that will stick in the memory. Especially that manic dead-eyed smile, reminiscent of the innocent we met at the start of the evening but now fixed and crazed as Toni is compelled to make stand after stand against the dark tyranny of her memories.

This is a story about second chances when second chances are the last resort. To illustrate this, Georgie Henley destroys us with the scale of her loss. Her performance is courageous and raw. It is a magnificent and terrible thing to watch.

TAMBO & BONES

Royal & Derngate Theatre

★★★

“The energy expended by Samuel and Ward is exhilarating”

TAMBO & BONES

Royal & Derngate Theatre then UK Tour continues

Reviewed on 11th March 2025

by Phillip Money

Photography by Jane Hobson

Previously reviewed at this venue:

TAMBO & BONES

TAMBO & BONES

TAMBO & BONES

TARANTULA

Arcola Theatre

★★★★

“a magnificent and terrible thing to watch”

TARANTULA

Arcola Theatre

Reviewed on 10th January 2025

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Kate Hockenhull

Previously reviewed at this venue:

TARANTULA

TARANTULA

TARANTULA