At the Other Room |
| otherMother/The Other Room- Blud , The Other Room at Porters , September 5, 2015 |
It was my first visit to The Other Room, Cardiff’s first (and only) pub theatre. I entered Porter’s bar full of excitement and anticipation. Certainly the atmosphere was buzzing. I sipped my beer at the bar as I waited for the theatre to open. My expectations were high; the opening season had given Cardiff some great new plays, very fine acting and immaculate directing by the theatre’s Artistic Director Kate Wasserberg. The theatre is a small room with only 50 seats. This is an ideal setting for the strong and intimate drama that was on show tonight: Blud, a story of two young, contrasting sisters, with their love/hate relationship. Rita, the older, strong bossy type, captain of her gang, all of whom it seems have now turned against her. We meet her, on her own at first in a run-down, abandoned football club training room. Later she is joined by her younger fifteen year old sister, Lou, given a robust and very engaging performance by Olivia Elsden. Although she does become more captivating as the narrative progresses Francesca Marie Clare, as Rita doesn’t quite catch the atmosphere of intimacy with the audience that the play requires. Things certainly liven up when her sister joins her, bringing the tragic news that she has just left their mother for dead. Kelly Jones may have won the Wales Drama Award for 2014 but Blud, I feel, needs a little more dramaturgical attention to round off the play. The story itself is quite extraordinary, but that’s no bad thing. Cotley’s finest player, Marcus James has been sold to bitter rival, Helmsgate. Rita makes a most extraordinary protest by kidnapping the player whom she has bound and gagged in a back room. It now crunch time as the two clubs face each other for the first time, the Helmsgate team with their star player missing. We pick up snatches of the match from Rita’s old bashed radio. Her frustration is increased as Helmsgate manage to win the match without the kidnapped player. It seems that life has almost fallen apart for Rita as she debates her next move with her sister. At one point she decides to murder the captured footballer. It’s a half-hearted attempt and fails. The sisters, by now, very close, work out a plan. It’s one we never actually learn the final outcome, either way the girls are sad but endearing losers. This tense and atmospheric work is served admirably, in this confined space, by lighting by Bethan Dawson and Nicola Ireland and captivating sound design by Chris Young. This first of this new departure for The Other Room, working with new companies, giving them the opportunity to display their wares may not be 100 percent successful but Kelly Jones, Anna Poole and Olivia Harris have got their otherMother company off to a promising start. |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
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