Lorna Irvine reviews a 'superb psychosexual drama'.
An oppressive, suffocating air hangs over One Day All This Will Come To Nothing. Adapted from Catherine Grosvenor's drama by Rekindle Theatre, this is an intriguing and tense play which unfolds in unexpected ways. Anna (Belle Jones) is a police woman becoming jaded by the endless rigmarole and abuse of her job. But when a man's body is washed up on the shore, it becomes a trigger for dealing with her own missing partner. Soon secrets seep from beneath the cracks, changing irrevocably her life, and those of others.
Paul (Scott Cadenhead) is an enigmatic, bitter club owner with his own issues. He takes in a depressive young man half his age (Lee Partridge), calling him Adam; initially, at least, his motives seem unclear. Anna visits a couple, Harriet and Martin (Emma-Louise Sullivan and Ian Watt) whose marriage is suffering from not knowing whether or not their missing son is dead. Soon, the stories entwine, and it emerges that lost souls can be found everywhere.
The set by Emma Fitzgibbon is draped with shimmering diaphanous grey silks, evocatively lit by Oliver Gorman, and illustrates the underlying motif of water—both as a symbol of cleansing and danger.
The performances are hugely impressive. The cast, effortlessly directed by Scott Robert, create a horribly recognisable tableau of people trying to cope, with Grosvenor's sparse language a study in what is not said but should be. Meaningful communication is groped for but always in the dark and just out of reach. Cadenhead's face registers pain in almost the same way as a silent movie star, and he is compellingly creepy. Sullivan beautifully conveys the numbness of grief, self-medicating with wine and trash TV, and Jones is superb throughout as a woman trying to confront her own fears, while maintaining a professional distance.
Rekindle have crafted a superb psychosexual drama here with many moments of haunting beauty and fine gallows humour. They are an emerging company to look out for.
One Day All This Will Come To Nothing performs at Tron Theatre until October 4.
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