Papatango Theatre Company has been promoting new writing for over 10 years now. Their Papatango New Writing Prize gives applicants the chance to get personal feedback on their work but ultimately one winning play will be commissioned for a full-scale production. 2022’s winner of the prize, Clive Judd, now has his play ‘Here’ realised in a three-week run at the Southwark Playhouse, writes Christopher Peacock.
Here is a kitchen sink family drama set in the West Midlands. The action is triggered with the arrival of Matt, a 25-year-old lad returning to the family home of his mother. Still residing there is his cousin Jess, Aunt Monica and her partner Jeff. What we see unravel is the tensions that remain in this unconventional household. They are all slightly haunted by past traumas and secrets left in their collective pasts. At the end of the first act, we find that Matt is into recording ambient noise in the hopes of connecting with the supernatural and he has come back with hopes that answers from the beyond will be found in the ether.
The turn from a pedestrian kitchen sink drama to semi-sci-fi is eventually realised but not before many narrative questions are opened and left unfulfilled. Judd’s writing commits to the realistic style of interrupting conversation that you hear in most domestic settings but also has a penchant for a Pinteresque pause.
The four-hander does give room in its runtime for some character depth and substance: Lucy Benjamin really leans into the borderline alcoholic Aunt Monica role with joy, and Mark Frost tries to extract an emotionally adept performance from quite a limited role as Jeff. However, Sam Baker-Jones in his professional debut gets the pick of the performances with his slightly abstracted naïve Matt.
Beyond the limits of the unfulfilling narrative at play here, are questions about the staging. George Turvey’s direction and Jasmine Swann’s set certainly do not aid the material. A full kitchen complete with sideboards is placed behind transparent screens on three sides that hinder some audience views, with the action either obstructed by set or from the static inactive blocking of the cast.
At times Here looks to explore a plethora of subjects from faith, belief, LGBTQ+ prejudice and mental health, but never commits. It takes its time to get moving down the route of the paranormal and is slow to arrive. It is a journey that is at times humorous but lightweight on the drama, with little tension ever being roused.
Southwark Playhouse, 77-85 Newington Causeway, London, SE1 6BD until December 3rd. Time: 7.30pm, 3pm. Admission: £24, £20.
Booking: 020 7407 0234 – www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
