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Piano Smashers

 
Richard Beck Review by Richard Beck 3 Published: 8 Aug 2025 theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall Show Dates: 1 Aug 2025-16 Aug 2025

We all have things passed down to us. Some are inherited genetically, and others are items bequeathed. A piano often falls into the category of a burdensome gift, one that can carry a great deal of emotional baggage and necessitates finding a home for it when you’d much rather smash it up. But, oh, the guilt!

A rather disjointed work that nevertheless has a certain charm

Piano Smashers, at theSpace at Surgeons Hall, is a solo play featuring Rob Thompson, co-written with Rupert Page, that has moments both amusing and moving. A mother hands down her piano to her children in her will, but they really want neither the instrument nor the memories it contains. Reluctantly, they accept their fate and take what they’re given. Inspired by the plays of Tim Crouch and the theories of Peter Brook and Bertolt Brecht, this is intended as a metaphor responding to what one generation passes on to another in terms of the environment, global economics and political culture.

The piece opens with Thompson delivering a couple of poor gags as a warm-up in a flamboyant, multi-coloured striped jacket. With that cast off, he begins in a softly relaxed manner to describe the set, which is an imaginary country home with three pictures in the hallway. The equally imaginary piano has to be brought in from outside, requiring the help of three members of the audience to mime its entrance.

Audience participation is a key element of the show, as Thompson takes time to issue scripts to volunteers to read sections of dialogue discussing various issues. Interspersed through narrative passages, we hear the sound of pianos being smashed, far in excess of the one that was inherited. The passages relate around the central theme but never quite achieve a sense of coherence.

Then, when we think it might all be over, there is a rather charming epilogue in which we are invited to reflect, in a period of silence, on an object, characteristic or quality we have inherited. Those who wish may then share their feelings with the rest of us.

It’s just one more section in a rather disjointed work that nevertheless has a certain charm.

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Piano Smashers is a new play by Rupert Page and Rob Thompson in which a mother bequeaths a precious piano to her children in her will, insisting they keep it. They do not want it because of what it represents to them, yet they can not bring themselves to dispose of it. Nominated Best Performance – The Actors, Brighton Fringe, 2024. 'Such hidden gems add greatly to the Fringe experience and remind us that there are superb ones which don’t get the audiences they deserve. Piano Smashers is one such show' (TheEdinburghReporter.co.uk). https://www.pianosmashers.co.uk