I found New Theatre Venture to be such a welcoming, friendly place as I nursed a long cold drink after an extremely long walk to get here. The theatre bar is lovely with lots to look at on the walls including old theatre programmes and photos from the theatre’s past.
As we walked upstairs into the theatre space I was handed free water and a paper fan which was a lovely touch in these hot evenings.
I was immediately struck by the complex and utterly believable set of the living room of the Lafeyette household in the deep American South. What a great design from Michael Folkard brought into reality, to high standards by the set build, painting and dressing team.
As the Lafayette siblings return to their late father’s crumbling Arkansas plantation home to settle his estate, tensions explode ae one after another they arrive. Toni (Sophie Dearlove) Bo (Greg Donaldson) plus their families are already fighting over the return of brother Frank/Franz (Oliver Canavan) with his fiancé River (Maisie Chalk) after a ten year absence. Toni seems obsessed by Frank’s possible drugged state not accepting that he is ‘clean’ and is attempting to make amends to them both. She’s suspicious and frankly foul to River – so delicately drawn by Maisie Chalk. Once they uncover disturbing artefacts among their father’s belongings the arguments step up into fury, culminating with Rachael (Amelia Leigh) delivering back as good as she was getting.
The younger family members – the long suffering teenager Rhys (Moses Azadeh) Cassidy (Maria Sturt) and Ainsley (Amon Stuart/Hal Offen) dip and dive for cover when possible but get drawn into the complex moves appearing around them. Maria Sturt’s Cassidy is a difficult role to play, particularly as she’s playing below her real age, but Sturt delivers a realistic performance of this often irritating but confused, love struck child.
After the half we’re pulled back into the minutia of the families battles but starting on a quieter one-on-one conversations which uncover more secrets and details of their past lives.
Appropriate is a bold, biting and darkly comic play, beautifully written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins that explores legacy, race and what we choose to remember – or forget – about our past. The NVT production doesn’t play to the comedy but to the darkness which heightens the laughs when they come. It’s a slick, professional, performance from this amateur cast.
At the end the house contents start falling, poltergeist like. It’s certainly a feat achieved brilliantly by the crew.
As well as the special effects, lighting (designer Ewan Cassidy) and sound effects are utterly superb. All is perfectly matched to the time of day and the mood of the piece.
The whole cast is superb and the skilful direction of Claire Lewis Is apparent in the control and explosive moments throughout.
A personal stand out performance, for me, is from Amelia Leigh playing Rachel. Her character develops through the play and her final outpouring is totally, controlled and on point.
This is a chilling picture of a family fragmenting in front of us punctuated by laughs along the way.
