Review: Remember This, Bedlam Theatre, Forrest Road

Remember This, ***Bedlam Theatre, Forrest Road

MEMORIES haunt this new play, written for EUTC by Lizzie Bourne and Florence Vincent, which examines the intimacies of a relationship.

They come flooding back to Nick and Helen, who are rummaging through the photographs which document their lives together.

Paul Brotherson's Nick is frantic while Daisy Badger's Helen stands serene in the tranquil haven of their attic, as they struggle to come to terms with some enormous event which has rocked their world.

Their son is downstairs with Nick's sister, Isabell (Emma Friedman-Cohen) who pops up with unwanted tea and sympathy.

If the set is minimal there is excellent attention to detail in the photos, which have been staged with care and precision to evoke a decade of life together. And when a CD is played downstairs, speakers under the audience's chairs make it all the more real.

There's less attention to the detail of the script's research, with odd descriptions of family life which don't quite work, while the final revelation is not as elegant as it might be. Director Annie Hardy could also help Brotherston find more focus to his character.

It is an ambitious project, however. Where it does work, it works rather better than many professional productions.

Run ends 27 August