Two men meet in an abattoir and become friends, while the world outside is in tumult. Russia is rounding on Ukraine and stands on the brink of war. Closer to home, animal rights activists round on the men, as they punch in for another day of grimy, factory floor killing, to tell them that “Meat Is Murder”.
The friendship between Welsh-born chatterbox Dan (Phillip John Jones) and laconic Ukrainian migrant Kostyantyn (Shannon Smith) builds nonetheless, but we see how little ability they have to change their lives in Grace Joy Howarth’s play. For a while, the soul-destroying work in the slaughterhouse seems to be the play’s focus. There is a corporate tyrant of a boss (Jordan El-Balawi) and the dull trauma of the job itself. It begins to tread similar ground to Alexander Zeldin’s powerful play Beyond Caring, which is set in a meat factory.
Then the focus shifts on to Kostyantyn’s former life in Ukraine, where he worked as a vet and where his pregnant wife Nina (Kateryna Hryhorenko) waits to join him. We also see Dan’s past – his relationship with an ex-girlfriend (Liv Jekyll) who re-enters his life as an animal rights activist, and a school bully (also played by El-Balawi) who returns too. Just when we think we are getting to the meat of each storyline, we move to the next.
Under the direction of Anastasia Bunce, there is slick but overcomplicated staging. Scenes jump back and forth through time. There are brief, speedy moments of choreographed movement, or scenes with a few scripted lines which seem like shallow plot building. Kostyantyn and Nina’s story holds intrigue but is under-developed. The acting is strong but the characters are too vaguely sketched, with the factory manager and former school bully flatly drawn as villains.
There is clear promise here, especially in the drone-like sound design by the Araby Bazaar, which in one visceral “kill floor” scene sounds like synthesised screams. But there are too many plot strands, quick scenes feel too thin, and ultimately it is hard to work out what the play is about: the ethics of eating meat, of migration, or of the undocumented injustices around zero hours work?
• At Southwark Playhouse, London, until 3 February
