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Theatre Centre presents
Rigged
by Ashmeed Sohoye
Director: Natalie Wilson
Designer: Neil Irish
Unicorn Theatre
13 – 17 October, 2009
 zens
A review by Marion Drew for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Rigged is a well-written, considered work that depicts the troubled world of modern working-class teenagers in an immediate and accessible way, aimed as it is at the 14+ age group. It is a tight, pacy piece of theatre that maintains a momentum throughout, just right for keeping teenagers’ attention.
Nathan, who did not complete his schooling, and has led a troubled early life, has anger issues which play out socially in a way which gets him an ASBO for criminal damage. His girlfriend Sarah is pregnant and not sure whether this baby is what she wants or needs to set her life on a useful path. Kathy, Nathan’s mother, is clearly out of her depth with him and tries inadequately to help him onto a different path. She is not helped by Gary, Nathan’s adoptive father, whose own dissatisfaction with his life and his gambling problem merely add to the difficulties despite the fact that underneath it all he has a kind, if cynical, heart.
Director Natalie Wilson has done a fine job in keeping the work neat and contained, and performances are strong all round in this four-handed piece. Kyle Summercorn as Nathan and Daisy Whyte as Kathy, stand out albeit in different ways. Summercorn brings an emotional depth to the character of Nathan and his challenges and dilemmas that is totally engaging and believable, while Whyte skillfully treads the much more subtle line in portraying the insecurity and street-wise toughness of his mother.
Designer Neil Irish creates the microcosm of a council housing estate very skillfully. Keeping it simple, using key props, movement and lighting rather than set changes creates a vivid world and gets the utmost out of the space.
Playwright Ashmeed Sohoye writes powerfully and manages to mix tragedy and humour in an engrossing way, but I did think that there might have been a less obvious way of portraying Kathy’s illiteracy than having her read through school phonics cards. For me this was a faltering moment in an otherwise gritty piece.
I thought too that the ending was perhaps too bleak to inspire a teenage audience to reflect on their lives, presenting them as it did with a rather predictable set of consequences for behaviour that they know all too well, rather than exploring or offering more considered, constructive alternatives. But this is certainly a worth while outing and I would imagine that teenagers and their parents will take very well to it.
Unicorn Theatre
147 Tooley Street, London SE1 2HZ
Box Office: 020 7645 0560.
Opening hours: Monday - Friday 9.30am - 6pm, Saturday 10am - 6pm, and Sunday 12pm - 5.30pm.
Email: boxoffice@unicorntheatre.com
www.unicorntheatre.com
There is a series of online video interviews with the cast and creators of this production on the Theatre Centre website: www.theatre-centre.co.uk
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