My Brother’s Drug

Blue Elephant Theatre

Reviewed – 18th October 2018

★★★

“Elysia Wilson is an engagingly vulnerable solo performer, vacillating between anger, desperation and, poignantly, misplaced hope as the show progresses”

 

This work-in-progress piece, written and directed by Rachel Mervis, explores the devastating impact of a young man’s chronic drug addiction on his family from the perspective of his younger sister. Using a combination of monologue, spoken word poetry and physical theatre, she unflinchingly depicts the desperate cycle of homelessness, criminality, hospital visits and betrayals as her once high-achieving brother (nicknamed ‘Frank’) spirals ever deeper into the life of an addict.

Mervis’ writing contains some intriguing ideas. One is struck particularly by the notion that Frank has a personality which is tragically predisposed to addiction – that the high he experienced off academic success and schoolyard competitiveness led to his seeking more dangerous thrills. She employs a cleverly cyclical structure, reinforcing the sense of entrapment caused by this disease. Her direction works well with sparse staging – two chairs which become a prison, a hospital bed, even a dancefloor. Elysia Wilson is an engagingly vulnerable solo performer, vacillating between anger, desperation and, poignantly, misplaced hope as the show progresses.

Inevitably, for a W-I-P show, there are areas in need of development. The choreography is somewhat indecisive: interesting ideas crop up but are not fully worked through and the physical theatre elements stray a little too close to charades, at times. The poetry requires work, often clunking slightly in its pursuit of a rhyme. Also missing is a sense of the siblings’ relationship prior to Frank’s drug problems, making it that much harder to invest in the story. One never got a rounded idea of just who it was who was being lost to these addictions. Furthermore, the show feels faintly ill-focused and episodic, lacking much of a narrative shape. The eventual climax, which centres on the poems performed throughout the show, is a little rushed and half-baked.

Even if it’s currently in its early stages, this piece is certainly one to watch.

Reviewed by Joe Spence

 

My Brother’s Drug

Blue Elephant Theatre

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Sisyphus Distressing | ★★★★ | March 2018

Boxman | ★★★★ | July 2018

 

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