Lucky Box by David Harrower (Knives in Hens, Blackbird) is the fourth of the Traverse's five-part lunchtime series of short plays entitled A Play, A Pie and A Pint.
The two paths of a young man and an older man meet in what transpires to be a wood and immediately the enigma that is Lucky Box begins. Seated on a plastic crate, the older character, A, engages the younger, J, by asking if he has lost a glove.
Preconceptions
about the predatory nature of the male start to surface, but the assured, controlled
behaviour of J makes that fade. The older man claims to have just been made redundant
and that he is the father of a boy called Jack.
We find out that Jack's been beaten up in these very woods.
He continues to pull out facts like someone rummaging
through a rag box and throwing up whatever he finds, but the audience is never
quite sure of what is really going on.
Is he out for revenge? Is he
trying to connect with his son through this youth who is a stranger? Does this stranger really know Jack? What
holds the two males in this dialogue?
The fresh open mind of youth is pitted against the cynical preconceptions
and desolation of the middle aged like the arm wrestle A claimed to seek from is son.
The enigma continues when the contents of the box are revealed at the
end and A offers a hand to J.
Is this gesture the prelude to an embrace, a wrestle or another twist? Have the dynamics finally shifted?
This is a highly engaging and intense piece and the
performances by each actor reflected this.
Scott Fletcher is still training at the RSAMD but already has a strong
stage presence.
The final A Play, A Pie and A Pint work, entitled An Apple A Day by Jo Clifford, is from Tuesday 14th to Saturday 18 April at The Traverse