Review: Porphyria, Zoo southside (Venue 82)
When we first meet journalist Reginald Blake and his barrister wife Hilary, they’re arguing over a game of Scrabble. This somewhat incidental opening should be an opportunity for the audience to invest a bit of emotional capital in the characters, upping the ante for what happens next, but for some reason Nick Jeffrey and Liz Stevens act out the scene in a strangely detached style, coming across more as archetypes than people: the downtrodden dreamer and the shrewish wife.
As the play progresses there’s plenty of wit and spark to the couple’s continual verbal jousting, but never much sense of two human beings suffering underneath. As a result, when the fantasy woman Reg dreams about every night (Genevieve Cunnell) is suddenly made flesh as the family’s new au pair, the shattering effects don’t feel quite as shattering as they should.
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Hide AdThe script for this 50-minute production is an edited version of a longer play by CJ Wilmann. Perhaps with the deleted scenes reinstated, and with a little more rawness and intensity to the performances, Porphyria could feel as full-blooded as the Robert Browning poem that inspired it.
ROGER COX
Until 20 August. Today 3:15pm.