Lorna Irvine reviews the new lunchtime play.
A thick, oppressive fog hangs over Lesley Hart’s new play, co-produced for Oran Mor and Traverse Theatre.
Floods are reaching critical levels in the Cairngorms, with rivers bursting their banks. In a small house, Diane paces around her meticulously clean kitchen where she receives a traumatised visitor, Mary. It soon becomes apparent that the two, at first seeming like awkward strangers, are implicated in something dark: Diane is aggressively OCD and Mary’s secret involves Diane. But a further unravelling occurs when Christine, Diane’s pushy teenage daughter enters.
The plot is paced evenly and the two lead women, Claire Knight as Diane and Cara Kelly as Mary are wonderful, consistently shifting the audience’s sympathetic responses, but Helen McKay’s Christine is less assured in Hamish Pirie’s otherwise naturalistic direction.
Still, it is lovely to see themes of paranoia and survivor’s guilt with strong female characterisation in a beautifully-written ominous piece, often played out in real time, which does not trade on stereotypes or pat behaviour. 3 Seconds is troubled theatre for our troubled generation.
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