When I saw the G-Plan furniture and the wallpaper only manufactured now for productions of Abigail’s Party, I knew this was the 70s and thought I was in for a treat. I wasn’t, writes Michael Holland.
This was touted as a ‘Rare Revival’ of David Storey’s Sisters, but I was left feeling that it needed a rare edit to bring it in under two hours.
Storey is said to be the Chekhov of the North, and Uncommon Theatre has been set up ‘to support working-class performers and creatives’, so I thought this was a heavenly match made in the chip shop. I found, sadly, that it was a series of supposedly working-class problems thrown together and performed in northern accents: prostitution, crooked cops, domestic abuse, violence and mental health problems.
Mrs Donaldson (Sarah Dorsett) welcomes Adrienne (Joanne Arber), who is making a surprise visit to the house. She is the sister of Carol (Laura Kaye), and they haven’t met for many years, despite family miscarriages, weddings, and deaths failing to reunite them.
When Carol enters, there is an awkward hug, some tentative attempts at reconciling, and some reminiscing. They say ‘belligerent’ three times in the first ten minutes, so I assumed this was important to the plot. It wasn’t. It was a lack of imaginative writing, plus, not a word that the working class uses much.
Two younger women: Beryl (Catherine Joyce) and Joanne(Madelyn Morgan) appear and give the impression that they are boarders. Then Geography Teacher Terry(Oliver Lyndon) and the police officer Cracker make themselves at home. Everyone continually asks Adrienne how long she is staying for. Carol’s husband, Tom(Christopher Tomkins), marches sullenly in and out and makes more awkward conversation and asks Adrienne how long she is staying for.
We were an hour in, and I was now very much hoping this would be going somewhere else to take us out of this oddness.
As it slowly dawns on the audience that this is a brothel, and the first act ends in a welcoming party, I had high hopes for the second half. I shouldn’t have.
In the hangover haze of the morning after, Adrienne finally catches on that Tom is a pimp who beats her sister and had drunken, unwanted sex with her during the night, which was all – apparently – a reason to buy herself in as Tom’s business partner. Don’t ask. It was that kind of night…
Again, the sisters’ conversation threw up a battle of a word; this time the famously non-working-class word ‘extricate’, which they strangely bounced about between them.
Characters are given some backstory but none to endear them to us when we realise their situations are of their own choosing. There are brief snatches of excitement but nothing to bother the bored, and they all work hard at making something of this difficult script, but this fledgling theatre group needs to choose better next time and produce a play that the working class would want to see.
I was happy to extricate myself at the very welcome end where some of the confusion was clarified.
Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, 410 Brockley Road, London, SE4 2DH until 26th April
Box office: www.brockleyjack.co.uk or 0333 666 3366 (£1.80 fee for phone bookings only)
Tickets: £17, £15 concessions. (16+)
