Tag Archives: Louise Sibley

CHECKMATE

★★★

Etcetera Theatre

Reviews, , , , , , , , , , , ,

CHECKMATE

Etcetera Theatre

★★★

“fast, funny and tender”

Dealing with death is difficult. But then so is dealing with other life events; and so is figuring out friendship. Dan and Brandon are not really friends. They have different tastes, outlooks and ways of dealing with things. Dan, played by Alfie Thompson Brown, is withdrawn, superior and wants to be left alone. Brandon (Owen Welsh) is loud and out there, a Liverpool supporter who likes to talk – but Dan won’t let him.

They do, however, have one thing in common. Both have lost their fathers. And Dan’s girlfriend thinks Brandon taking Dan to a football match will help him open up and deal with his grief. It is only later on that the full football connection is revealed.

Robert Monaghan’s new work is a fast-paced, sixty minute comedy drama. It is full of laughs but then wrings out a very poignant ending. As it starts, the two male characters are uncomfortably seated together on a sofa in Dan’s flat waiting for a bad evening to end. Brandon is trying to get some rise out of Dan and failing badly. In an act of desperation (on both sides) they start a game of chess.

It was never really clear to me why the play is shaped as a game of chess, nor whether the ending was the ‘Checkmate’ of the title. This didn’t feel like a competition, much less a game of strategy – although there is some weird manipulation going on: when she appears, Alice (Lucy Eddington) is impatient with her boyfriend, but it is quickly revealed (to Brandon) that she has a secondary agenda.

Despite the somewhat clumsy device, after a slowish start this is an hour full of action and reversals. It is fast, funny and tender. Thompson Brown skilfully loosens up his character. Frozen-faced at one moment, in the next he is a drama queen rolling on the floor. Welsh plays Brandon with great charisma, a lot of arm-waving and a superb Liverpudlian accent, if not his own. Eddington as Alice shows, with great charm, how contrary a woman trying to control events can be.

Director Erin Elsmore extracts big comic moments from each scene and leads it to a satisfying close. This is a good, all-round short play, produced as part of the Camden Fringe Festival 2025 by Ramhaus Productions. It works mainly for the 25-40 age group who will recognise some of their own conflicts and anxieties in the storyline, as well as the painful journey to maturity.



CHECKMATE

Etcetera Theatre

Reviewed on 2nd September 2025

by Louise Sibley

Photography by Erin Elsmore


 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

HOSTAGE | ★★★★ | March 2024
DEAD SOULS | ★★½ | August 2023
FLAMENCO: ORIGENES | ★★★★ | August 2023

 

 

CHECKMATE

CHECKMATE

CHECKMATE

AN INTERVENTION

★★★½

The Space

Reviews, , , , , , , , , ,

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

 

 

AN INTERVENTION

AN INTERVENTION

AN INTERVENTION