ED2014 2/5 Reviews ED2014 Theatre Reviews

Replay (Onstage Tonight Productions)

By Dave Fargnoli | Published on Tuesday 5 August 2014

Touching on suicide, madness and paedophilia, this is an undeniably brave new play, exploring serious subjects from an unexpected angle. Our unreliable narrator is piano teacher Freya, a complex character struggling to justify her unhealthy obsession with an underage student. Such dark themes demand careful treatment, and the young company tries hard with heightened language and heavily stylised movement. This physicality works well when it underscores the action, but too often feels like an arbitrary afterthought. Given the importance of music in the characters’ lives, it’s disappointing that the production’s use of sound rarely goes beyond twisting the dial on a radio. Under all the self-conscious staging, though, there’s a smart and ambitious play trying to understand itself.

C cubed, until 25 Aug.
tw rating 2/5 | [Dave Fargnoli]