Every so often, if you’re lucky, there comes a production that is so new, so fresh, so exciting it takes your breath away. For me, Sandpits Avenue is that production. Set in a rural farming community that is hard to leave and even harder to return to, it tells a simple tale of childhood friends trying to stay close through dead-end jobs, relationship breakdowns, drug-fuelled parties, going to war and being left behind. It is as painful as it is touching, as brittle as it is powerful, as moving as it is hard-hitting. In case you couldn’t tell, I absolutely loved it.
Written completely in blank verse and performed with almost frantic energy, Sandpits Avenue is a tour-de-force that demands the audience's’ full attention right from the start and doesn’t let up until the lights come on. It’s a fast-paced production and it takes a few minutes for your ears to adjust to the rhyming poetry of the script, but once they do the words flow through you and flood your mind. The rhythm of the script is matched by the excellent physicality displayed by the cast. They bound around the small theatre, running, leaping, catching and climbing.
Boneyard Theatre is a young company and their youth complements the piece, they perform with earnest energy and just seem so pleased to be there. They even thank everyone for coming and shake your hand when you leave. Did I also mention that they sing? And play the guitar? And beatbox? They’re like the X-men of contemporary theatre.
I wanted to stay and chat to the cast after the production, but I was so blown away by what I’d just seen I found myself unable to form words. I had to stand outside the venue for five minutes trying to process what I’d just witnessed before I could begin walking home. When a production affects you that strongly, you know you’ve found something pretty special. So do yourself a favour and take a trip to Sandpits Avenue.
