University student Jen was always a daddy’s girl. Dad was a well-known radio host and national treasure. He climbed mountains in an abominable snowman’s costume and raised millions for charity. But then the police came knocking at his door and there were charges of historical sex abuse as people came forward claiming that Jen’s dad had once taken advantage of them.
He checked into a posh hotel and checked out of life, leaving a devastated Jen and her uncle Len, the less successful of the two brothers, to pick up the pieces and clear up the mess. As Jen observes: “It’s not that I want to move on, I just want to be able to keep going.” This is proving tough in the face of public opinion, and people who desecrate her father’s grave.
Stuart Slade’s debut play is not only topical, it also has a convincing foul-mouthed sparkiness, and is a reminder of just how crucial this unfunded Battersea theatre is to the new-play ecology. It’s a play that has a real way with words as Jen and Len struggle to express how they really feel and discover the truth about Jen’s dad as they swig cans of cider.
In a way, this is a coming-of-age story, as Jen moves from insistence of her dad’s total innocence to an understanding that things are seldom black and white. But it’s also about the gaps between generations and the ways that attitudes, and people, change. It’s a little contrived in the plotting, but Jennifer Clement captures all of Jen’s spikey teenage assertiveness and sulky insecurities, and Graham O’Mara is terrific as Len, a man who recognises that being wasted is a waste of time.
• Until 29 November. Box office: 020-7978 7040. Venue: Theatre 503, London.
