“The performances are uniformly magnificent: honest and brutal. Yet it stops just short of drawing us in emotionally”
Towards the end of Naomi Wallace’s “The Breach”, the joint protagonist, Jude, is imagining a version of the past that didn’t happen, but could have. It takes a while to get there but the scene encapsulates both the power and impotence of hindsight. The characters wrestle with regret, bereavement and guilt, but more so with the question of whether that could have been avoided had they acted differently.
The play jumps between 1977 and 1991, initially as two very different worlds but gradually they overlap and the two separate decades bear witness to each other. Set against a completely bare stage there is little to differentiate the two ages. Different actors play the younger and older versions of the characters. Between the scenes a stark line of white light sweeps the stage, brushing them away like skittles to replace them with their counterparts.
We begin in the seventies, in small town America, a time of restlessness, turbulence, political scandal and a questioning of traditional authority (there are extensive, weighty articles in the programme notes depicting the profound effects on the American youth of the Vietnam War and ‘Neoliberalism’ – although not touched upon at all in the script). Seventeen-year-old Jude (Shannon Tarbet) has taken it upon herself to protect her younger brother Acton (Stanley Morgan). They spend their days in the basement of their modest home creating their own world. Frayne (Charlie Beck) and Hoke (Alfie Jones) gate-crash this world – not so much friends of Acton but emotional racketeers. Conditions are laid and sacrifices must be made. Inevitably the bond between brother and sister is snapped in two. In hindsight, the love they shared that could have prevented this is the exact same love that caused it.
So, you cannot escape the actions of the past then. But can you learn from them? Tellingly there is no casting for the older Acton, but Jude (Jasmine Blackborow), Frayne (Douggie McMeekin) and Hoke (Tom Lewis) reconvene fourteen years later. As each snapshot of 1991 plays out onstage, more is revealed of the dangerous games the teenagers played, focusing on many issues – most notably sexual consent. A lot is said today about how it was a ‘different time’, back then. But accountability (rightly or wrongly) has no limits. As these thirty-somethings examine their past, one wonders who the victims and who the culprits are. And are the intervening years of guilt and atonement enough or should further punishment be executed? This play, while never giving us a succinct answer, suggests we punish ourselves enough. There are no winners.
Sarah Frankcom’s sharp and efficient direction matches Wallace’s writing which is as penetrative as ever. The performances are uniformly magnificent: honest and brutal. Yet it stops just short of drawing us in emotionally. We don’t quite see the fragility, fear and loneliness that lies beneath the rough exterior. Which is a shame, and a surprise. Based partially on past experience, it seems that Wallace has poured a lot of her own heart into the writing; but ultimately it appeals more to the intellect than to our hearts.
“undeniably good fun and any viewer will be blown away by the sheer grandeur of the production”
What if Romeo and Juliet didn’t end so tragically? The hit West End musical & Juliet (directed by Luke Sheppard) sets about answering exactly that by giving Juliet (Miriam-Teak Lee) a second chance at life. When Shakespeare (Oliver Tompsett) is convinced by his wife Anne Hathaway (Cassidy Janson) to write the play’s famous conclusion, Juliet and her best friends Anne, May (Alex Thomas-Smith) and Nurse (the incredible Keala Settle of Hands on a Hardbody fame) embark on a wild trip to Paris to live out their lives without restriction. A love triangle with the sweet Francois (Tim Mahendran) soon unfolds and things get all the more complicated when Romeo (Tom Francis) comes back to life…
The fantastical reimagining hinges around a selection of world-famous pop hits by the Swedish producer and writer Max Martin. Song after song is hurled at the audience, some more fitting than others to the scenario at hand. The Backstreet Boys’ ‘I Want It That Way’ is reprised several times to really highlight the message of the musical – the importance of making your own choice. Demi Lovato’s ‘Confident’ is a particularly enjoyable number which Juliet and Francois belt out with gusto and ‘Oops!…I Did It Again’ is comically employed when Juliet finds herself engaged after only one day of romance…again.
Max Martin’s songs are great crowd pleasers and a lot of fun but the jukebox musical always suffers by its song limitations and the songs already feel dated only three years after the musical’s release. There is also no one song that packs a real punch. The incredibly strong voice of Lee is unfortunately underused and apart from the finale song ‘Roar’ (by Katy Perry), our lead does not have a big number that she can really sink her teeth into. The band – led by Patrick Hurley – do a phenomenal job of keeping up with the incredible pace of the production with 29 total songs and countless other reprisals.
Lee is phenomenal – we will no doubt be seeing much more of her. Janson and Tompsett have great chemistry and expertly guide the story on its ways. Settle is, as expected, an absolute powerhouse, leading on laughs but also offering particularly touching moments with both Juliet and her lover Lance, Francois’ father (Julius D’Silva). The choreography (Jennifer Weber) is very strong and brings a real energy to the production.
The cast should also be praised for its diversity – in both gender expression and ethnicity. It is refreshing to see so many different types of people on stage and Janson’s proclamation that someone’s gender and sexuality is none of our business garners cheers from the West End audience.
The set and staging (Soutra Gilmour) is second to none. Objects and set pieces fly in and out; characters are lifted into the sky on chandeliers and balconies; pyrotechnics, glitter and confetti rains galore. The incredible production value makes certain scenes – mostly notably the finale – feel more like a concert than our typical theatre show. Accompanied by adventurous video and projection design by Andrezej Goulding, the audience is fully immersed in Juliet’s Parisian adventure. The lighting (Howard Hudson) too contributes to the great spectacle with strobes and spotlights a regular feature and Paloma Young’s neo-Elizabethan costumes do wonders to bring the whole show together.
Some issue can be taken with the show’s appearance of being a feminist corrective to Shakespeare when in fact Juliet once again finds herself centering her life around a man albeit a much nicer one than playboy Romeo. Moreover, amongst all the excitement, Juliet is left without almost any personality. Her characterization is akin to a princess in a pantomime, lacking any real goals or aims. It is a shame she does not have more vigour and that the writers did not think to give her some sort of career-orientated plot, for example.
& Juliet is undeniably good fun and any viewer will be blown away by the sheer grandeur of the production. It is just unfortunate that the general message of the importance agency is a good one is sometimes underpinned by the characters and plot itself.
