There’s definitely something stirring in Cardiff where the amount of theatre activity continues to grow. On the evening I visit there are sold out shows across the city including at The Other Room, the city’s first pub-theatre space. It’s a reminder that audiences bloom wherever there is a choice of good quality work on offer. This neat little venue’s second season is showcasing emerging Welsh talent, and Blud is a first show from new all-female company, otherMother.
Despite lots of rough edges and some improbable plotting, this is a show with lashings of vim and a big compassionate heart, which wins it an extra star.
Rita (Francesca Marie Claire) and her teenage sister, Lou (Olivia Elsden), have a relationship built on mutual neediness and resentment. Rita has never recovered from being taken into care and she lives only for match days as leader of Cotley FC’s female football firm.
But times are changing and Rita has been left behind. The team has moved to a new stadium, its star player, Marcus James, has been bought by the rival club, and Rita’s girls, once always up for a post-match rumble under the railway bridge, are drifting away as they have children; setting their sights on something better and family life. But they are the only family that Rita feels she has, and she is prepared to do something massive to get their attention. It’s why James is tied up in the showers of the club’s old changing rooms.
Anna Poole’s production has some pacing issues and Kelly Jones’ script would be all the better for some dramaturgical first aid that would stop repetition and bring consistency. But it’s a watchable study of two emotionally scarred young women attempting to negotiate a future while trapped by circumstance and economics.
