The debut production of new theatre company A Passion for D.I.Y., '500 Miles', is thankfully not a 'Walk The Line'-style tribute to Scottish songsmiths The Proclaimers, but an earnest modern revenge drama stuffed full of symbolism and modern-day significance. The play opens with ex-soldier Eddy Sparrow (played by 'A Passion for D.I.Y.' founder Max Saunders-Singer) clutching a green tub of his dead wife Liz' ashes and sitting on the hill where he proposed, when her ghost appears in a wedding dress (she had been wandering about the foyer beforehand). What follows is a Rashomon-style pair of contrasting accounts, first from Liz' university sweetheart and rape suspect Simon Crowe (avian symbolism alert!), then from Liz herself; Eddy, like the audience, is forced to decide which to believe (it is most likely somewhere between the two) and act accordingly.There are some nice ideas here, but it all feels a bit heavy-handed. A stand-off between a soldier (Iraq war) and a banker (economic crisis)! An apple, a crucifix and some plastic crows! Simon poses like Christ after testifying in court, then like Saint Sebastian when stripped to his briefs! This final image, which doubles as a striking if obvious reference to the Iraq War, is symptomatic of the play as a whole. Earlier, straight after the most important moment in the play, a scene is crowbarred in where Eddy and Liz discuss the merits of the army. This is superfluous, counter-productive and about as subtle as Roy Chubby Brown running naked down the Royal Mile blowing a trumpet with a courgette stuffed up his arse.Despite this, there are some powerful moments. I'm glad they don't show the rape, as there is just as much suspense without it and the narrative ellipsis preserves the Rashomonian ambiguity. The quality of writing wavers: the frustrated final conversation between Eddie and Liz is particularly authentic and the build-up to the 'rape' is carefully wrought, but the scene in the park with Liz and Simon is more hammy than the sandwich Eddie forcefeeds Simon. The reunion scene in the bar, too, cloys ('I got a massive bonus today!') Sonnie Beckett as Liz is probably the most interesting of the three performers, though all three sail a bit close to the wind of studenty overacting. Saunders-Singer and Ralph Verrion (who plays Simon) show shades of Paddy Considine and Dominic Cooper respectively, and it was a pity not to see them share the stage for longer. All in all, this is an allusive, slightly laboured, but very different thriller with echoes as varied as 'Fatal Attraction', 'Dead Man's Shoes', Seneca and postmodern art, but flashes of mediocre dialogue ultimately clip its wings.
