There’s one astonishingly effective scene of violence in this show. It’s a horrible, brutal, can’t-take-your-eyes-away-but-desperately-want-to kind of scene. It leaves you shocked and hollow, sincerely affected. The problem is, the rest of the production doesn’t match up at all. Though it’s set in a world of murders in the park and beatings at home, it very rarely conveys any sense of danger and fear. It relies on one violent scene to convey the atmosphere that the whole play should produce, and the fact that it has to suggests something is seriously wrong.
Herons follows Billy, a boy of about fifteen who lives on a council estate, as he is mercilessly bullied by Scott, the brother of a murderer. He confides in a nervous girl named Adele and navigates his difficult relationships with his parents. Not all of the acting is bad: George Watkins, as Scott, exudes menace and is the only member of the cast to be a convincing delinquent. His cronies, Aaron and Darren, played by Jordan Edgington and Henry Fewster, are pleasingly hyena-like in their constant cackling, while Hannah Lawrence’s Adele successfully seems young and nervous - she captures the self-consciousness of the sixteen year old girl well.
Yet there’s rarely much tension between the actors and you don’t believe in the dangerous world they are trying to create. This might be because their accents often slip and their swearing seems unnatural but it might also be because Jamie Manton, as protagonist Billy, seems woefully miscast. He is always plaintive and wide-eyed, self-consciously sad. You never believe in the character’s searing anger, supposedly bubbling up within him. The direction may be partly at fault here: Manton’s Billy is often not very mobile or dynamic, sitting on a bench or the floor while other characters talk at him.
Even with its remarkable stage violence, this show isn’t something I’d urge you to see. Without acting capable of creating the necessary tension, the dynamism and horror of that brutal scene simply seems gratuitous.
