Necessity often breeds invention on the Fringe, and Bear Trap theatre's story about Brixham trawlermen battling recession, their own demons and the cruel sea is a fine example of what you can conjure with a table, a few chairs and some yellow wellington boots. The whole thing even smells of the sea, even though you know that you're sitting in a landlocked Southside church hall. The men's unaccompanied voices offer up shanties that are salted with both sea and tears; when they rub their sou'westers, you can see the wind rising ominously.
Bear Trap is a young company of real promise, and this little show combines crisp new writing with an imaginative staging which captures the claustrophobic environment of men cooped up together on a fishing vessel, fighting the elements and their own fear. This is the story of a vanishing way of life and of how easily your life can vanish in a Force 10 gale when a 40-foot wave can take your head off.
Jesse Briton's script is a neat piece of storytelling that weaves in the many tensions cleverly as a Polish agency worker joins the regular crew of the Violet, the one remaining trawler of a company that once owned a fleet but which is now on the brink of bankruptcy. The crew agree to make a risky trip out to sea for one more catch in order to stave off ruin. As the wind and tensions rise and old resentments are dredged from the depths, the crew of the Violet must outwit both the sea and a bigger and far better equipped rival vessel.
This is a small but beautifully thought-out piece of work, a sea-bleached story told with passion and performed with real dynamism.
