It’s always a shame when a drama mistakes volume for profundity. That’s the problem with this piece of gig theatre from Hull-based Middle Child, which proves, despite some pumping musical accompaniment, a rather substance-free meditation on notions of success and failure, loosely structured within a wider socio-political framework.
In the first of three sections, it’s 1997 in Hull and we’re introduced to ten-year-olds Leah (Bryony Davies) and Chris (James Stanyer).
Rich Chris’s dad has just died and poor Leah’s mum has left but, as New Labour promised, “things can only get better”. This year turns out, in Luke Barnes’s rather sketchy script of loose verse, to be the high point of wide-eyed potential and opportunity all round, as by 2007 Chris is unhappy at university and Leah working aimlessly in Build-a-Bear.
Paul Smith’s production is invigorated by the skill with which each of the nimble seven-strong cast sings and plays instruments, but even so these 80 minutes amount to less than they promise and ask us to take too much on trust. There’s a poignant through-line about parental wishes for/pressures on children and a brutal, powerful, pivotal scene sees Leah blame her struggling bouncer father for her lack of success in life.
If she had had all the extras lavished on Chris, would she have made a better go of things?
If the democratic world had elected other governments over the past 20 years, would we be in a different situation today?
Until Nov 24 (020 8743 5050, bushtheatre.co.uk)
