The Suffolk-based company Eastern Angles has produced some fine small-scale shows taking their inspiration from the history and working lives of the people of the region. Sadly, this play – which focuses on the Essex oyster industry, the closure of the area’s last boatyards in the 1980s and the restoration of a 19th-century oyster smack – is not one of their best.
The young apprentices of the Slipway Centre are restoring an old boat under the watchful eye of Mo, who used to work in the boatyards. But the future of the centre looks rocky, and unless Pamela can raise funds with the help of university student Kasey, the whole project might go under. Is Mo hiding something about his past? Does it matter if Kasey has reinvented herself? And can a tiny piece of deadwood really be the difference between a renovation and a restoration?
Issues of authenticity in boat restoration and the presentation of self are glancingly raised, but never really explored in a show that has enough plot strands for half a dozen dramas – with none of them of any particular interest. This is a show that definitely doesn’t benefit from being written and directed by the same person, Ivan Cutting: there are serious and screamingly obvious dramaturgical problems, including holes in the plotting, far too many unnecessary characters, inadequate character development and motivation and thematic inconsistencies, that would have all been picked up by an outside eye.
These issues, and Cutting’s tendency to leave his own lame jokes unexcised, haven’t been addressed, and the result is a show that’s hard to follow and, clearly, harder to act. I caught what is the 19th performance in a 68-date tour, and there were still moments of uncertainty in the painfully slack staging. Eastern Angles’ reputation has been rising; it would be a pity if it was scuppered by this misjudged outing.
• At Quay, Sudbury, 10 April. Box office: 01787 374745. Then touring until 6 June.
