Forgotten Things Review

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Rating (out of 5)
3
Show info
Company
Red Ladder Theatre Company
Production
Emma Adams (writer), Rod Dixon (director), John Barber (co-director / puppet maker), Sarah Perks (designer).
Performers
Woody Murray (Toby / Dr Kevin), Jo Mousley (Lilly), Stephen Mosley (Philip), Simone Lewis (Margot).
Running time
80mins

In a monochrome world, a dysfunctional family search for forgotten things.  These are not necessarily physical but are rather points in time when they had mental health - when everything was right.  "Did we go wrong?" ask self-absorbed parents Philip and Margot as they struggle with their own loss of direction and a household shared with a suicidal teenager and his senile grandmother.

In the middle of it all, their 16 year-old son, Toby is himself a hidden thing.

"No one ever sees me", he complains in utter frustration.

He stands with a noose draped around his neck as his perpetually hurrying, always late, parents leave for an appointment with a psychiatrist - "We will talk about the rope later".

Dr Kevin, the big-brained puppet shrink seems to have his own "issues" and his line in treatment and patient care is unusual to say the least.  His surreal treatment takes them through hypnosis and dreams to identify their loss of hope and admit their mistakes.

Meanwhile, Toby and his disinhibited and confused grandmother, Lilly go on a search for her lost secret.  She is by turn playful (with her half-remembered almost Leer-like song "Not everyone gets to go to sea in a lean green boat...") and distressed at what is rattling around her brain.

At first, Toby is frustrated ("You're almost as pointless as me"), but as he finds a way to get to the woman still inside her head a bond develops with the potential for redemption.

There is a lot to commend in this show. It sounds dark, but there are comic, almost Fawlty Towers, moments.

The set, into which actors and props can appear and vanish, is innovative with a hint of the "Wonderful World of Dissocia".

There are good performances, particularly in the developing bond between Toby and Lilly and transitions from Toby to Dr Kevin are so fluid that it is only later that I realise that they are played by the same actor.

For a play that can be seen as warning against the dangers of applying labels and pat solutions, the treatment of the senile grandmother is used somewhat as a tool and is rather too simplistic.

While the characters are beset by frustrations, it's slightly trying for the audience too, because if the whole production was as strong as the beautiful opening and the powerful ending we would have witnessed a truly rewarding piece of theatre.

Times: 5-16, 18-23 and 25-31 August, 1.50 pm.