In Basildon ***

Royal Court Theatre, London

***

"For those who love family dramas, this will tick boxes, but as a play it doesn’t have enough to say to fulfil the skill set of its cast."

A family drama centred around inheritance and brother/uncle Len's death bed, David Eldridge’s In Basildon serves as a powerful illustration of how easily money issues can destroy relationships. Following the  trend set by The Royal Court's The Westbridge, the play and family are determinedly located in Essex roots - almost too self-consciously so (prompting parallel assessments between playwright Eldridge and character Tom). 


I must admit now that, having attended the play's first preview performance, I'm having trouble writing this review. Having read several diatribes on the subject, all of which vociferously condemn bloggers from passing judgement on previews, I feel on distinctly shaky territory – all made far worse because my impression of the play was that it was too. I am left in a real conundrum: were the plays flaws inherent to it or is all that is needed a bit of TLC?

 

I’m inclined to think the latter: my overwhelming sense was that the play hadn’t quite found its feet and hadn’t worked out if it was meant to primarily be touching or comic. The family’s portrayals of grief were exquisitely achieved (I was particularly impressed by Lee Ross’s weeping as Barry, whilst both Linda Bassett (Doreen) and Ruth Sheen (Maureen) adeptly combined sincere sadness with pursed-lips displays of self-righteousness). However, although fantastically realistic, the situation and characters never really tugged at our heart-strings. The dialogue was remarkably funny, but the comedy we found in it seemed to surprise the cast, and the ensuing sense of the production as an unfinished and incomplete one had a surprisingly strong (and faintly negative) impact on my experience of the play. Perhaps the cast's indecisiveness (comedy or pathos) will ultimately allow the production to really come into its own as time goes on – paradoxically, the more serious the undertones, the funnier the lines often turn out to be, so by playing it straight, the cast could well win in the end. If the cast had tried to play up to the comedy more obviously, much could have been lost, as was the case with the alcoholic priest. Only the most subtle of approaches could have saved such a bad walking cliché, but Christian Dixon, as Reverend David Williams, was the very obviously weak link in an otherwise wonderfully capable cast. I can only hope that the director took his first night enthusiasm firmly in hand: his overly exuberant gestures for top ups and the farcical over-exaggeration of tipsiness have placed him firmly in my bad books.

There were some other hints that Eldridge’s writing suffers from being too obvious. Max Bennett as Tom says some terribly unrealistic things as the classic middle class boy intruding into a working class scene and this undermined the verisimilitude of it all. Plus, I do feel that plays should leave some things to an audience to work out, and this one tied up all the loose knots (though fortunately we were saved from seeing the sisters actually fall out). Good dialogue and great acting, but the play itself seemed to lack a certain je ne sais quoi. For those who love family dramas, this will tick boxes, but as a play it doesn’t have enough to say to fulfil the skill set of its cast.