Boireannach Theatre presents: 'The Octopus Trap'

by J Sydney-Leigh

I went to see an evening of two plays by Boireanach Theatre. Describing themselves as 'An all female, feminist theatre company creating raw, thought-provoking, unadulterated theatre in the UK today,' I was excited to see their debut season of work, entitled 'With a Heavy Heart'.

Play 1: The Octopus Trap

The concept of this devised piece has copious potential. It focuses on an old woman, Grace - grieving for the recent death of her son in the company of her loving daughters and granddaughters. As the play unfolds, the anger and frustration that simmers beneath grief surface in a convincing display of the erratic behaviour that often ensues after a loss. Everyone in the play is mourning, but all, except Grace, remain outwardly strong. The necessity to stifle outward emotion facilitates the play’s tension, which manifests itself in general bickering between the characters, coming to a climax towards the end of the family gathering.

So why did I leave feeling unsatisfied? The shortfall of the play lies in the clichéd character choices which make it difficult to relate on a profound level with Grace, played by Annie McKenzie, who trapped herself in the ‘funny, dithering grandma’ role. By creating such a character she struggled to find the depth needed to win the audience’s empathy. At the start of the play, Grace orchestrates a musical puppet show that narrates her own tragic loss through the story of a mother octopus losing her baby to ‘The Octopus Trap’. We understand the parallel, but the scene feels like a patronising tool for exposition - more aptly placed on the pages of a children’s book.

It’s not all octopuses and seaweed songs, however, and the end of the puppet show relieved me of trying to draw emotion from a silhouetted cloth. A welcome breath of naturalism ensues as the three generations of women relax into familial comfort, and the apt silences between small talk work well to gravitate the sombre mood. When the son’s widow, played by Amelie Edwards, and her daughter Sophie [Harriet Layhe] are alone in the kitchen, they share outbursts of pain and sorrow. Layhe offers a solid performance, adopting a mature strength for the sake of her mother, before giving way to her own vulnerability and frustration. The fault of the scene lies in the weakness of the script, with lines such as ‘It’s not the same is it? / It’s never going to be the same. / He’s still here. / Is he? Where?’ All too general. Too familiar. Edwards is also let down by the script, as her climactic show of grief is stifled by an ill-placed attempt at comedy. She screams ‘How can I be alright?!’ then guiltily retracts with ‘…Sorry that was really dickish’. On the subject of death, I understand the need for light and shade, but the play flickers too brusquely between the two, leaving me emotionally disorientated.

The would-be catharsis of the kitchen scene dissipates as quickly as it arrived, with the interruption of the widow’s quirky sister Bryony, played by Rosie Frecker. Bryony is as new to this family as the audience is, and Frecker is well cast in bridging the gap for us through polite observation and endearingly untimely comments.

Grace closes the play with a final thought on loss, providing the most poignant script writing of the piece. She continues the narration of the Octopus mother, ‘Never regretting that she had loved but, for the first time, realising how deeply she had, she became alone and to become alone after knowing togetherness left her gasping for air’ / ‘The price you pay for togetherness: the inevitable exposure to solitude’. Such sober reflections finally bring authenticity and heartache to her character.

This is a sweet play, but the script falls short. As part of an experimental season for Boirennach Theatre, this play heeds Grace’s advice: ‘But go inside The Octopus Trap, never mind the fear of being pulled out of your depth’. This is a motto that I commend of fringe theatre, be it often hard to stay afloat on the depths of experimentation. I look forward to seeing what the next season holds for this new all-female company.

‘The Octopus Trap’ by Boireannach Theatre

Written by Boireannach Theatre

Directed by Rosie Abraham

17th & 18th Nov 2014. 7.30pm.

Tickets £10

Ye Olde Rose and Crown, Walthamstow

Buy tickets here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/with-a-heavy-heart-tickets-13805353183?aff=estw+via+%40eventbrite

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