Holed up on a muddy ‘beach’, three boys look out across the Thames, on the run from the police, a vengeful gang and each other. This beautifully written debut by Vicky Donoghue is tough and lyrical, its language breathtakingly natural yet with a poetry all its own.
Bound by a prank gone badly wrong, these lads are comrades in misadventure: Charlie, the cocky but charming leader, Wayne, his dim-witted but loveable sidekick and ‘posh boy’ Jake who is studying to get the hell out of there. These Essex-boy types sound familiar but the accuracy of the writing eschews cliché and creates a sense of ‘this is how it really is’.
Ideally these characters would be played by real seventeen-year-olds. The language is so specific and their behaviour so truthful of boys that age that you can’t help wishing for a slightly younger cast. But the twenty-something actors do a good job of creating child-men who can never leave home. James Marchant, Mike Noble and Scott Hazell play their characters to the hilt, investing emotionally in every moment. Noble as the loyal Wayne is especially memorable, his twitching energy comic, then vulnerable as he struggles to cope with what unfolds.
The strength of the play and this production is to bring out the warmth and vulnerability beneath the laddish banter. These boys are lost, with a grim present and no future, yet are still able to laugh and to dream of another life. Their happiest memories are of childhood, of whoopee cushions and metal detectors. Their idea of heaven is a London paved with gold. Childish and naïve it may be but all the more touching for that.
The show drifts slightly as it shifts into a more surreal gear towards the end and sometimes I wanted to be moved more than I actually was. The thrust stage at the Bush brings the actors so close to the audience that although the performances are honest, you sometimes wish for the playing to be less intense, to draw you in with quieter moments and a more conversational tone. Donoghue’s writing is so cinematic I found myself imagining a parallel movie at times - which probably didn’t help my concentration on the actual stage.
Amy Jane Cook’s hyper-real set is perfect, the direction confident and the lighting evocative. But the poetry of the language and the poignancy of these boys’ lives is what stays with you. If you want to hear a new voice, go and see this play.
