Beryl, Sweet Grassmarket, Review

Image
Rating (out of 5)
3
Show info
Company
At Large Theatre Company
Production
Lesley-Ann Reilly (writer), Gráinne Curistan and Daniel O'Brien (directors).
Performers
Lesley-Ann Reilly (Beryl) and Alan Rogers (Frank).
Running time
45mins

Beryl runs a discrete little cross-dressing service but is about to find out what it is like to walk in someone else’s shoes.

Quietly spoken Frank seems a bit nervous about divulging what has brought him to Beryl’s cluttered bed-sit. It’s private, perhaps even secret, but they start to bond when she gives him a cracked cup and he quotes Leonard Cohen, “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in”.

Light is also shed on the cardboard box of clothes. Beryl says that there is something there for everyone, but perhaps most of all for her. These are no charity shop cast-offs, but objects with history; clothes belonging to her mother and her own childhood communion day tiara. She takes pleasure at the touch of the fabrics, their soft caress.

But it’s shoes that hold the interest of Frank and as he slips into high-heels he seems to be a little more purposeful in his stride. Beryl needs to know what he is looking for. And, as with her, memories seem to be important. He is searching for Angie, someone who has faded away from him and with whom he associates the tap of heals with return.

Transformations are not always for the better and in her need to needed Beryl reveals more than she intends and pushes some buttons that could put her in peril.

This is a nice little drama exploring two damaged individuals, told at a languid pace that manages to build up a degree of tension. Its psychoanalysis could however go further than associating cross-dressing with cracked.

Developed from a briefer piece, it is still around 15 minutes less than advertised and could be extended further. As a short piece is might be interesting in an intimate site specific space rather than a traditional theatre.

Show Times: 15 – 16, 22 - 24 August 2016 at 3.45pm. 17 – 19, 26 August 2016 at 9.30pm.

Tickets: £7 (£5). £20 (family).

Suitability: 14+