Moving Family is a play written by Paul Charlton, the Geordie from The Ginge, the Geordie and the Geek. This minimalist piece depicts a group of four step siblings lumped in a moving van as they head into an uncertain future together as one family. Themes covered include racism, prejudices, adolescence, and familial strife.
When the play started, the acting appeared a tad forced and unnatural, the characterisation of the actors coming across too forcefully and and obviously prepared. I soon moved past this, however, as I was drawn into the cleverly written and resonant story. Two sets of siblings have been thrown together by their parents’ relationship and, in the confined space of the moving van, tensions break through to the surface, borne by surface differences between the pair. Key, the self-labelled intellectual and politically minded school boy, soon rubs his new, mixed-race step-sibling Lauri up the wrong way with his apparent racism and endorsement of the EDL. The theme of acceptance and prejudice is key to the play as a whole.
Lauri and her brother Carl are both at odds with the apparent ‘rahness’ of Kieran and his kid sister Stef, who are similarly frosty towards what they perceive as ‘council house chavs’. These frontiers begin to break down throughout the play, and we see these characters in a more three-dimensional light. The intense and realistic fashion by which the play achieves this is certainly impressive. Whatever Key’s views are and however annoying his pompous and bullish attitude is, we soon see through them to the nervous, Tourettes-afflicted, unconfident schoolboy, who is sick of being singled out and simply craves acceptance. This reaches the point where he finds it easier to achieve this acceptance in groups like the EDL, who define themselves against traits and customs they don’t have, rather than ones they do. That all of this is clearly conveyed is testament to the young acting talent on display.
All four characters slowly become more and more believable and likeable as the play goes on: Carl, initially loutish and leering, emerges as a kind, unassuming and protective brother; while his sister Lauri shows her feisty side in knocking Key down a few pegs. Key himself is even understandable by the end, defended and lambasted as he is in equal measure by his embarrassed sister, whose own fear of loss and desire to fit in is plain for all to see. Slowly, the characters begin to bond over shared losses and hardships they have suffered, starting to see the similarities in each other rather than the differences.
This play does very well in dealing with the present but difficult issue of racism and prejudice among young people in Britain today, Charlton showing that more extreme views are often little more than masks for personal insecurities and stubborn, preconceived judgements. All four characters are ultimately revealed as the teenagers they are, who crave normality and are tired of special circumstances - something virtually every person their age can understand and empathise with.
