This play touched on four lives. There was an affair, a miscarriage, abuse, and an illegitimate child all buried under the silence of Not Talking.
Mike Bartlett wrote this taut and ingenious drama while he was still at university. But its production as a BBC Radio play in 2006 launched his career. This performance, directed by Jerry Lyne at the New Venture Theatre (NVT), managed to capture both the surface level – and distance – between our four protagonists.
The play, with the characters mainly speaking in soliloquies, certainly made the audience do some work. James (played by John Talputt) introduced himself as an 82-year-old bloke living in a country cottage in Sussex. He was a conscientious objector in the war – who took some stick. His wife, Lucy (Sue Williams), told us about her joy when she was pregnant, before she had a miscarriage. They didn’t try again. But did he later have an affair? A distance remains between them that’s definitely Not Talking.
From a different generation, Mark (Thomas Dee), signed up for military service and liked to show off his rifle with a semi-automatic setting. He fancied Amanda (Catie Ridewood) who signed up for the army on her seventeenth birthday. He called her his “sugar honey”. But she was sexually abused by the regiment. She shut herself off in shame. They never talked about it.
For this performance, the audience filled the NVT’s intimate Studio Theatre on the ground floor, close to the action, full and buzzing. There was a sparse stage with a piano facing the wall and occasional sounds providing a break in the intensity.
The design and lights of the set by Strat and Tamsin Mastoris also played a crucial role in creating the atmosphere. Swirling shapes of colour on the floor mirrored the uncertainties the characters were facing.
Mike Bartlett originally made clever use of each actor’s individual monologues in his script. In this way, he felt the cast would offer the audience a deeper insight into each particular character. In a few places, the monologues here seemed a step or two closer to conversations between characters. But this is the smallest of quibbles.
This was another cracking night of drama at the NVT. Seriously good theatre! And a standing ovation!
New Venture Theatre, 17th – 25th Feb 2023
Photos by Strat Mastoris
