What strikes you first about this new play in Hampstead Downstairs is the set. The work of Naomi Dawson, it is a detailed tribute to the art or illness of hoarding. Teetering piles of books, magazines, household gadgets, and newspapers jostle with buckets of cutlery and wall displays of random ceramics and glassware. Wherever you look there is a silted scum of detritus above which looms a single arm chair, presiding or just surviving, amongst the chaos.
This is the domain of Bea, a middle-aged woman, and sister to Veda, who is paying her a visit after a long silence between them. There is a lot of history here which is gradually unpacked in the opening half hour. Once close, these sisters moved decisively apart after the death of one parent, with Bea staying home and ‘sacrificing’ herself to look after the other, while Veda left to marry a fairly unsatisfying husband with whom she has had a son. Bea has used the house to build defences against the world while Veda’s life has run into the sands in different ways. They swap memories and recriminations and manoeuvre uneasily around each other until Veda reveals the real reason for her unexpected visit.
Then about two thirds in to what is a short 60-minute evening, the plot unravels rather than thickens, and we are led to question exactly what we have been watching so far. Were we watching in real time, or was this a projection? What are we watching now as the play moves into much more sombre territory and a dialogue between Bea and her nephew, Ash? This strikes me as an unsatisfactory evolution that leaves the play uneasily poised between a self-sufficient single act-dialogue and a two-act experience that remains underdeveloped. This impression is confirmed by the published text which in many ways differs from the final product of rehearsal. Atmospheric touches of magic realism in the soundscape are not really enough to bridge the textual and textural gap.
That said, the acting performances really do engage one’s attention. Both Holly Atkins and Rosie Cavaliero offer richly layered portrayals of sisters with very different personalities. Cavaliero captures Bea’s damaged defensiveness and deep inner strength, whereas Holly Atkins gives a detailed study of brittle bravado, hiding – and ultimately revealing – inner insecurities and fear. Theirs is a wholly believable and relatable sibling relationship in its familiarity and dysfunctional disconnect. Likewise, Archie Christoph-Allen brings an angry vulnerability to the part of Ash, a role that is underdeveloped in the text but fully fleshed out in performance within a mere quarter hour.
In many ways this is a talented debut, with insights aplenty into human relationships and dialogue both tart and touching; but in its present structure the play loses its way at the two-thirds marker and really needs either greater concision or expansion into something altogether more sustained.
Chlöe Lawrence-Taylor
Director: Lucy Morrison
Cast: Holly Atkins, Rosie Cavaliero, Archie Christoph-Allen
Until 17 May 2025
60 mins, no interval
Photo Credit: Helen Murray