Theatre Review: How Hard it Happens

Published on Tuesday 19 August 2008 23:58

HOW HARD IT HAPPENS *** SWEET TEVIOT PLACE (VENUE 295)

THERE is much to like about this intense piece that looks at grief, loss and loneliness in two very different settings. On one side of the stage we have a teacher and pupil who appear to have been in a bus crash; on the other, a husband and wife dealing with the suicide of their convict son.

A talented troupe provide complex, interesting characters to engage with – the humour surprisingly coming from the piece's hapless couple, trying to deal with their grief and make sense of where it all went wrong. Equally powerful is the obvious shock felt by the other camp, as they struggle to come to terms, as strangers, with what's happened around them.

Some stellar performances make this worth the ticket price but patience is needed to see where the stories will eventually end up.

To their credit, the actors make the best they can out of a stage too small to carry the action without it feeling a bit cluttered and haphazard; the script, too, could have done with some tighter editing, but this is nonetheless interesting, well-played theatre.

Until 25 August. Today 2:30pm