Bitter Lemons had great success at the Edinburgh Festival last year. It now comes to Park 90 with writer Lucy Hayes as director and two actors who have played the roles before. The show fully delivers on expectations.
The writing is lean, spare and terse but with lyrical power as well, and immediate credibility in crystallising and embodying character. In only an hour we travel a long emotional journey but with no flagging in energy or pace. I often complain in these reviews that new plays that come in at 90 minutes sometimes have only enough mileage for 60. In this case the medium and the message in are perfect sync with one another.
This is the tale of two young professional women told in parallel and using the second person as a distancing narrative device. Angelina is an analyst at a financial investment firm who is preparing for a pitch to new clients which may yield a promotion. Despite financial pressures her life seems set fair, and she has an apparently steady relationship and home life. Juxtaposed with her is AJ, a working-class footballer, whose father has just died, leaving her ill at ease with a mother who has apparently never endorsed her sporting choices. Suddenly a chance emerges to step up into the position of leading team goalie, and she is equally keen to prove herself at the top level on her pitch.
The sudden revelation of unexpected pregnancy hits them both and with drastic consequences – this is where the writing and the playing really become totally compelling. Avoiding simplistic moralising about abortion, the writer and actors demonstrate through the drama the blizzard of confusing and conflicting choices that these women face in this situation, and how little free will they experience in the face of the controlling reactions of others. Those who might seem most likely to be sympathetic abandon them, and those who appeared cold and indifferent become supportive. The switchback of changing fears, hopes and anxieties is memorably conveyed by both performers who range across a huge emotional gamut. Only at the end, when the two characters briefly meet, does the tone falter a little – indeed the very ending seemed a little unsure with the audience also uncertain that we had reached a final point of rest.
Hayes is particularly successful in depicting the poisonous politics of an office environment that pays lip service to diversity and talent but where familiar demeaning and belittling behaviours undermine her. The scene in which her character pushes back and through such treatment is particularly memorable. Likewise, Waddock’s portrayal of her crucial match in goal when in no physical state to play, is made uncomfortable to watch through the brilliance of the physical acting she devises.
As usual at the Park Theatre, production values are incisively focused and well attuned to the production. The set is simple and effective – a blue and white chequer-board that suggest both pitch markings and a cool office vibe. The actors move mirrored boxes from square to square hinting at the complex games of mental chess they have to play to survive. Costume changes are within each box and these are used effectively to suggest both vulnerability and power-dressing as appropriate. Sound and lighting schemes make effective interventions without smothering the actors and the narrative drive of the text.
All-in-all this production is a model of how to treat serious contemporary themes with the dramatic complexity they deserve.
Writer & Director: Lucy Hayes
Cast: Shannon Hayes, Chanel Waddock
Until 14 September 2024
60 mins, no interval
Photo Credit: Alex Brenner