Anna is missing, but why, and what happened in the day leading up to her disappearance? This non-linear play cuts back and forth from evening to daytime to unveil the truth behind the enigmatic, reserved Anna, the romance and the horrors, and the events of the day she vanished.
The setting is a dingy city flat shared by three flatmates, Jo, Matt, and Anna, a love triangle. The actress playing Jo is clearly the most impressive, engaging with a strong presence, manifesting the greatest complexity of character in her relationships with best friend Anna and boyfriend Matt. Her final scenes of guilt and confusion are delivered with acute feeling and intensity. The other two actors show aptitude, but are less believable, and there are some unfortunate moments of wooden dialogue. I found it difficult to believe the arrogant and conceited Matt deserved so much attention, but maybe that was the point. Anna also lacked the authenticity to produce empathy and, although her tale is tragic, her speeches often became merely dry exposition.
There are some interesting quirks of direction that made this piece somewhat intriguing; the intense freeze frames between each scene, for example, illustrating the changing relationships, as Anna, wide eyed and zombie like, changes the time on the TV clock - a simple device that clarifies the chronology of each scene. In some cases, however, overly contrived choices were made; a phone wire pulled slowly, almost grotesquely out of an actress’s mouth, for example, occurs without ever being explained.
This is the first production from brand new company work. Theatre, and the debut of Tom Ratcliffe, founding member and playwright. The company shows some promise in the energy and ability of its actors, but from a company that describes itself as ‘cutting edge’, we should expect a narrative that’s a little less predictable and sensationalistic.
