PERFORMANCE & COMEDY

Alma Tavern, Bristol (Tue 29 Nov-Sat 10 Dec)

THEATRE We’ve all done it: made it to the dreaded family reunion just in time for the weather to turn, the wrong kind of snow is on the ground, and now we’re stuck indoors with only a sibling and a dead granny for company.

Hello, let’s rewind a little... This is ‘Sitting With Thistle’, the final offering in Theatre West’s Picture This season of plays inspired by photographs. It’s not hard to feel enclosed in this theatre space, and Anna Michaels’s naturalistic set plays up to the tiny dimensions by creating a cramped room that looks ready for some sort of ‘Look Back in Anger’ kitchen-sink gloom-fest. Elysé and Mark await their parents who are stuck in a blizzard somewhere in Wales. We know we’re in Wales because Delilah is on the radio and someone is speaking in Welsh about the Stereophonics.

The opening speech to the audience teases with a bit of theatricality, but thereafter director Ed Viney seems a little constricted by Marietta Kirkbride’s script. There’s much early banter that needs to build tension rather than remain as forced, ping-pong insults. The dialogue between brother and sister contains a lot of back-story and the result of this clunky exposition is that lots of questions get answered, leaving little room for tension, for stakes to be raised sufficiently to garner our emotional involvement.

Mark (played with energy by Paul Hassall) is annoying and works in New York with Elysé’s ex. Natasha Pring works hard at drawing out sympathy for Elysé, particularly in overcoming the portrayal of an unconvincing and strange medical condition. Frustratingly, there are moments when the play might turn into a psychological thriller, where the turn of a door key could literally unlock one or the other’s power. But the piece doesn’t know what it wants to say, other than that the past can entrap us.

Kirkbride does have ideas but needs to develop her theme (and character – a two-hander needs intensity, and 'irritating' doesn’t necessarily mean 'interesting'). The play does have a go at metaphor – there are eggshells to be broken, a thaw to come, and the ‘reveal’ involving Thistle is promising, though swiftly dispatched with. A few humorous lines are thrown about but, given the stiff granny, there are missed opportunities for black comedy. Ultimately, a frosty night with low pressure, slight depression and occasional warm spells towards the end. (Kerry Hood)

Copyright Kerry Hood 2011

Pic: Farrows Creative 2011