This year's Camden Fringe Festival is a first for me. August usually finds me trekking the streets of Edinburgh, wading through a sea of performances in the meagre hope of stumbling across something half-decent. If I'd only known about Camden sooner and that plays as good as this one were only a tube ride away, I could’ve saved quite a bit of money.
An excellent play. Thank goodness I didn’t go to Scotland.
For fellow newcomers, this play is an ideal first start. Final Score takes place at the home of two parents, Keith and Christy, who are waiting for their son to come home and celebrate his 16th birthday. They are joined by their friends, Sam and Eddy, whose son is also turning 16. One child is a football prodigy, the other an academic failure. The parents wait. They drink. As the four become slowly more inebriated, we learn more of their history. Unspoken feelings are shared, friendships are tested, and balance is lost (in more ways than one). An old story, but a good one.
While watching this play I found myself subconsciously comparing it to other booze-fuelled scripts, such as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. And, impressive though the comparison is, Lisa Fulthorpe’s technique is actually similar to Edward Albee’s. Both write naturalistically but dramatically. Both have wit, and use it to instantly dispel or create tension. Both manage to make their audience feel, at times, as though they shouldn’t be watching. This is a good thing. Plays should help you experience something you otherwise couldn’t (or shouldn’t) and Fulthorpe pulls this off magnificently.
Of course, good writing is nothing without strong direction. Emma Blundell takes Fulthorpe’s script and makes it accessible and exciting, constantly filling the space with action. There were moments when I found myself trying to watch far too many things at once! To do this and maintain focus on plot is notoriously tricky but Blundell pulls it off with ease. The world she creates is immediately believable, and with a clever use of video footage she encourages us to emotionally attach ourselves to the play and its characters.
The actors work well together with no scene stealing and a thoroughly professional generosity to one another. It's therefore difficult to choose a favourite performance from such top-notch performances but I’d have to say that Tomi May’s portrayal of Keith is outstanding. His character, which in less-skilled hands actor could have become‘alpha-male’ stereotype, is shown to be manipulative but vulnerable and loving.
The costume and set design were a little sparse but what there was used fantastically. And perhaps the plot is nothing particularly original, but its telling was superb. An excellent play. Thank goodness I didn’t go to Scotland.
