Writer: Ruth D’Silva
Director: Beth Kapila
Reviewer: Christine Stanton
“Intriguing“
3.5 / 5
The walls of a home have seen it all – holding the love, secrets and pain from each family that’s ever lived there. When Agatha returns to her childhood home, the weight of the memories trapped in the foundations becomes overbearing, for both her and the bungalow itself.
Agatha’s (Lydia Bakelmun) dad is unwell in hospital, so being there for her mum Bernadette (Fisun Burgess) while he’s being treated is imperative. The pair have a tense relationship – Bernadette is impatient and flippant with Agatha, nothing she ever does seems to be good enough, and her constant need for affection and encouragement grates on her. Agatha is trying to stay positive but is holding on to trauma from her past, referenced briefly in off the cuff exclamations about not wanting to see her brother, and instantly recoiling at the sight of the carpet beater hung up on the wall. She’s desperate to get it off her chest and finally confront the issues from her childhood with her mother, but will there ever be a good time to talk about it or will it remain repressed in her mind forevermore?
The first half of Ruth D’Silva’s tense family drama is strong, the interactions between Agatha and her family members offering small puzzle pieces to explain aspects of her personality and behaviour since being back at home. The arrival of Agatha’s boyfriend Steven (Jack Bence) is a welcome addition, his light-hearted, ‘cheeky chap’ persona an interesting contrast, providing many moments of humorous relief through Bence’s natural comedic ability. Bakelmun perfectly depicts hidden trauma through her cautious anxiety, and her conversations with both Steven and Bernadette are believable and intriguing. There is enough tension built in D’Silva’s script, that keeps the audience invested, balancing both the past and present relationships with skilled precision.
The second half fully focuses on the broken relationships between Agatha, her mother, and her brother Luke (Mikhael DeVille), mainly surrounding the unspoken aftermath of abuse and the avoidance of acknowledgement by Bernadette. While the beginning of the play hinted towards the trauma Agatha endured, the second half completely lays it out with an unexpected supernatural-style reveal that leaves nothing left to guess. Although some closure and definitive context is needed, it is ultimately quite an unsatisfying reveal, that feels empty and rushed in comparison to the pacing in the former scenes. The latter half of the show in general doesn’t feel as polished, and struggles to continue building on the compelling scenes the first act ended on, even though it features the big revelation that has been left unspoken for most of their lives.
The bungalow bursting at the seams with stories is shown with Cheng Keng’s haunting, yet subtle lighting cues, depicting the cracks as the tension builds. With numerous story strands and a myriad of themes squeezed in, the show itself is also bursting at the seams at points, but intrigues most during the more simplistic scenes – familial conversations and the heavy burden of emotional turmoil.
Runs until 15th March 2025
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