Delaney, dressed in grey sweatpants and T-shirt with no shoes, stands in front of a narrow cot bed. A plastic food tray bearing bland food and medication has been shoved into the otherwise bare institutional room.
It’s an insipid world which he escapes by running into vivid, disorienting dreams, something which he has been doing since childhood, but recently it has become more difficult to find the exit. A current dream is too white, a space without definition, but that’s not what has given him the headache, it’s the pervasive noise tenderising his skull. Getting a grip on the thin noise is difficult, taking practice, silence is thicker.
He is grateful for that muffled stillness, to be allowed escapism is a privileged thing, in it he can hear himself think, but his loud memories are of a tangled and troubled emotional family history which has withered like a grapevine.
He is able to see what he can and could at the same time as he now speaks to an illusory cat before dropping to the floor, hissing and clenching his fingers into claws, wanting to be the leopard that was part of childhood games with his brother Jordan. Wishing to hide he thinks that something tiny might be better, scurrying like a chameleon that blends into safety. He is adept at concealment, but some things demand facing. Such as the night he will never forget when he ran away to see Jordan only for it to end in tragedy when he too chases better dreams.
With this ability to change he snaps between characters, his mother whose love language was food, comforted him by singing Silent Night and provided him with an apartment. Jordan, his absent father and the somewhat sinister Head of a summer camp all haunt his dreams.
The play relies on highly energetic physical theatre moments, and the characters are largely well defined with physical prowess, but some roles (like Lady M’lady) and some scenes blur into ambiguity. The work looks at grief, loneliness and abuse but the injustices of the healthcare system and conversion-therapy remain more camouflaged.
It’s a forcefully performed and well-paced piece from a fresh graduate of one of France's most prestigious drama schools. It crackles with promise but feels more like a showcase than a fully rounded theatrical work.
A chameleon of a show, transforming in a heartbeat but aspects of the story remain just out of sight, too well hidden for its own good.
Show Times: 1 to 23 August (not 10,17) 2025 at 2pm.
Tickets: £8 to £14 (£10).
Suitability: 14+ (Note - Show contains distressing or potentially triggering themes).