Secrets - The Cock Tavern, London

Secrets

A devised show

Director: Danielle Coleman

Reviewer: Evelyn Downing

The evening started quite promisingly; I found the Cock Tavern and the box office was obvious even if the entrance to the theatre was less so. As we entered the theatre the actors were all on stage waiting. So far so good, I thought. Some stylisation makes for good theatre.

It turns out you need to see how many actors there are because you don't actually meet some of them again for another 20 or so minutes. Which isn't necessarily a problem except I was wondering all of that time when the play was going to get going. It turns out it doesn't.

The premise of this devised piece is that it works with the idea of secrets, the secrets we keep and share, even the nature of secrecy itself. After a few rambling scenes full of scripted 'ums' and 'ers' and awkward conversation however there is still no sign of any kind of plot emerging. The vague connection between characters provides a path but no driving story leaving nothing to engage with and noone to empathise with.

There are too many stories to keep track of, none of which are given time to fully develop. The thread through the first act provided by the psychologist who doesn't know how to connect with people soon becomes repetitive and is too obvious a devise for a play about revealing hidden parts of ourselves.

The continual scene changing and clumsy use of props and a multipurpose table and chairs also becomes very tiring. There was one occasion where a character swapped over two identical chairs during a scene change for no apparent reason. A montage of headlines and graffitti at the back of the stage was never referred to and seemed a bit gratuitous. The atmosphere was broken continually by noise floating up from the pub below, glasses being knocked over, even what sounded like scripts being dropped at the lighting/sound desk.

That said, there are some wonderful scenes including a particularly touching and humorous couple sat on medicine balls chatting online, which incidentally features the two stand out performers of the piece. Shireen Walton and James Dutton both give wonderfully natural, and in the case of Walton incredibly moving, perfomances in all the characters played.

In fact, it is overall a very strong cast, and they need to be strong to sustain the amount of monologues and drawn out passages in this overly wordy script. A lot of the dialogue is beautifully natural and contrasts sharply with the more 'staged' scenes, attributable perhaps to the devised nature of the piece.

There are some lovely ideas in this play, some touching scenes, some great little snippets that mirror life beautifully. There are perhaps enough ideas to sustain a pretty good one act play for about 6 characters. As it is the piece meanders through two acts with very little direction or dramatic purpose and I walked away feeling bombarded, confused and very unsatisfied.

Runs until Sat 5th Dec