Centred around emotional, physical and drug-related abuse, this play comes across as if these mature and ambitious subjects were being tackled by a cast with woefully meagre experience of them. The performance began to feel like a bad trip itself, as I found myself being shouted and screamed at for just over an hour. The film crew in the corner only confirmed my suspicions that I was, indeed, seeing the Rebecca Black of theatre. The self-indulgent monologues felt highly artificial and abrasive, and the script was filled with clichéd, laughably ill-chosen lines which jarred with the sombre subject matter and seemed a flailing attempt at catharsis. Approached with the best of intentions, this was a show that fundamentally missed the mark.

theSpaces at Surgeons Hall, 8 – 12 Aug (not 10), times vary, £5.00, fpp308.
tw rating 1/5
[jlb]