CANDY

White Bear Theatre

★★★★

“a truly enthralling seventy minutes of theatre about love and addiction”

Can love truly conquer all? Candy, the stage adaptation of Luke Davies’ novel about love and heroin addiction, would argue it cannot. Director and co-adaptor Kate Elliott along with star and co-adaptor Freya James, have managed to deliver something truly special with this piece on the spiral of addiction and co-dependence.

When Dan and Candy meet, it is quite a typical boy meets girl. They fall in love. They want to share everything — every moment, every experience… including Dan’s budding dependence on heroin. What follows is a slow, but steady descent into sickness, desperation, and constant heartbreak that threatens to destroy them both.

Freya James delivers a stunning performance as the titular character, Candy, as well as a host of other characters who inhabit this universe — her snap transformation between Candy and Candy’s mother is particularly impressive. Ed McVey shines as well — he brings a softness to Dan, a character who might easily slip away as cold and self-interested. Instead, we thoroughly empathise with him. We want so badly for both of them to get better, to work it out, even though ultimately, we know they can’t.

The movement direction is truly a standout in the production. Co-movement directors Laure Bachelot and Alexandria McCauley have truly crafted something that deals sensitively with the subject matter at hand. When you’re dealing with stage-craft around drug use and sex, it would be all too easy to lean into the gratuitous, to shock your audience into submission. Instead, Bachelot and McCauley ensure that Candy and Dan’s actions always tell us just enough about what’s going on. The implication is sometimes more haunting than the visceral visual, and it is clear that this creative team understand that.

Praise must also be given for the set and lighting design (Kate Elliott and Cameron Pike, respectively). Though incredibly stripped back, once again the restraint only adds to the impact of the story. Elliott’s framework of PVC pipes lined with soft blue tube lights and draped with sheer, white sheets gives the space just enough structure, while also allowing intimate asides for both of our protagonists. With some soft lighting from behind the sheer sheets, we can watch as some of the most uncomfortable moments unfold. There are no shortage of occasions where we feel like we’re watching something we shouldn’t be privy to, but these moments behind the curtain, these silhouettes are particularly affecting.

What could allow this excellent piece of theatre to soar to the heights that it is absolutely capable of reaching? A slightly deeper introduction to Candy and Dan. Their meeting feels like it passes a touch too quickly. We’re thrust into the beginning of their shared addiction, but not given enough of their initial romance to help us invest into their relationship. They do love each other, even if that love turns toxic, that much is obvious — but the narrative would benefit from showing us more of why that love endures to begin with.

Candy is a truly enthralling seventy minutes of theatre about love and addiction, which holds its subjects and its audience with sensitivity and respect. Its a gorgeous exploration of an important subject, and it should not be missed.

CANDY

White Bear Theatre

Reviewed on 5th June 2025

by Stacey Cullen

Photography by Kate Elliott

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

HAUNTED SHADOWS: THE GOTHIC TALES OF EDITH NESBIT | ★★★ | January 2025

UNTIL SHE SLEEPS | ★★★ | November 2024

SEVEN DAYS IN THE LIFE OF SIMON LABROSSE | ★★★½ | October 2024

THE BOX | ★★★ | July 2024

JUST STOP EXTINCTION REBELLION | ★★★ | February 2024

I FOUND MY HORN | ★★★★ | February 2023

THE MIDNIGHT SNACK | ★★★ | December 2022

THE SILENT WOMAN | ★★★★ | April 2022

US | ★★★★ | February 2022

MARLOWE’S FATE | ★★★ | November 2021

CANDY

★★★

“Claire Louise Amias delivers a committed central performance, commanding the space”

Great for cold and dark winter nights, Haunted Shadows brings three Victorian and early-twentieth-century gothic tales to life, thanks to stage adaptations by performer Claire Louise Amias and director Jonathan Rigby, supported by research associate Elliott Amias. More famous for The Railway Children, mentioned in a comedic passing reference, Edith Nesbit also penned a great many horror stories, three of which are presented here.

Leaning into the spookiness of the source material, the show is replete with eerie coloured lighting changes, designed by Steve Lowe, that mimic the descent of darkness or the breaking of dawn, or to evoke the distressed mental state of the narrators of the stories. The lighting occasionally has the feel of a torch held under the chin – characteristic of many a campfire ghost storytelling – and works extremely well in this context. In combination with the grisly sound effects (knives, demonic breathing), the work of sound designer Keri Chesser, these elements add to the over-the-top theatre of the performance, eliciting thrilled laughter the audience.

Claire Louise Amias delivers a committed central performance, commanding the space around the spare staging consisting of a chair with dolls and a trunk from which she takes the props – a shawl, a decorative ribbon – that serve to accessorise her austere black dress, the work of costume designer Anna Sorensen Sargent. Using little more that these props, she brings to life the narrators of three tales, as well as Edith Nesbit herself who is the storyteller of the framing narrative. While perhaps appearing a little under-rehearsed at times, she is nevertheless a compelling narrator and completely in-tune with the nature of the performance, complete with gasps and wide-eyed gazes of fright directed at the audience. Her delivery is strong, and her physical performance is also convincing. She embodies various characters as she relates with terror the events of the tales, recoiling at bodies and barely daring to look at apparitions.

The three tales themselves are interesting, as well as the stories from Edith’s youth which are presented as catalysing her interest in the macabre. To my mind the third story and final memory from childhood were the strongest, relying on the depravity committed by humans, rather than the malign supernatural forces that may or may not be the antagonists of other episodes. The final movement of the play also made some of the best use of the lighting design, with the flickering of a fire a particularly effective device to draw in the audience. I felt, however, that the payoff for the first tale could have been stronger, despite being aided the amusing use of caricatured evil of the ‘shadow sighs’.

Haunted Shadows is worth seeing for its Victorian atmosphere, played-for-comedy horror, and for its ability to return us to the ghost stories of childhood sleepovers.

CANDY

White Bear Theatre

★★★★

“a truly enthralling seventy minutes of theatre about love and addiction”

CANDY

White Bear Theatre

Reviewed on 5th June 2025

by Stacey Cullen

Photography by Kate Elliott

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

CANDY

CANDY

CANDY

HAUNTED SHADOWS

White Bear Theatre

★★★

“Claire Louise Amias delivers a committed central performance, commanding the space”

HAUNTED SHADOWS

White Bear Theatre

Reviewed on 29th January 2025

by Rob Tomlinson

Previously reviewed at this venue:

HAUNTED SHADOWS

HAUNTED SHADOWS

HAUNTED SHADOWS

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