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Too Write Productions The Baby Box
by Chris Leicester
Old Red Lion Theatre
26 February – 22 March, 2008
A review by Allan Taylor for EXTRA! EXTRA!
The Baby Box opens on two adopted sisters, Glenda and Yvonne, in their first meeting in over 12 years. There’s a police search outside and a media crusade. As Yvonne seeks refuge in the family home, Glenda confronts her with her horrifying past, as well as both of them uncovering a few home truths about each other along the way. Why is Yvonne there and what does she want? Stephen Henry’s directorial choice to make this play so overtly Brechtian is one shaky and difficult decision. Starting off well, the imperceptible acting/ arriving sequence of the actors seamlessly flows with the audience arriving, until they are unsure of whether the play has actually started or not. The presence of a ‘stage manager’ who announces the acts is where the ‘verfremdungseffekt’ (or Brecht’s famous distancing technique) goes wrong, and it is unclear why this decision is taken. The fact is that the text and acting are so very emotionally involved is the reason that this effect cannot be achieved. It is when the house lights go down and they use stark lighting and music that we are drawn into the world of The Baby Box. It is exactly these that are the play’s key elements and most significant success. Sarah Finigan as the edgy and rebellious Yvonne really tears her heart out and is played well next to the brilliant Joanna Watt as the sensible and angry Glenda. Together they are the mismatched couple; the ever constant sibling rivalry caused by such different personalities. The multi-role playing means that Watt could truly express her range as an actress, and is equally believable in every single role. Playing two mothers and an adoption agency manager, she is successfully commands each with a sense of purpose. Although it turns into Yvonne’s psycho-drama and there is a slight resentment over the issue that she needs to be so neurotic and crazy, we are led to question whether Yvonne is the victor or a victim. Was she always the least favourably treated? Will she ever find herself in trying to find her birth mother? Can she live her life with a missing piece of the puzzle? Whether the Brechtian direction was intentional or not, I can’t help but think this would have worked equally well as a beautiful and intense duologue between two sisters, but as the convention of Epic Theatre demands, it is constantly set and moving in the past. With the chemistry of such a beautiful text and believable acting, the spell is indeed cast and it becomes a very revealing and emotionally involved piece. At the end, we are left empathising hopelessly for a woman struggling to find her identity and make amends with her past. A good play to see as textually and directorially it was ambitious, and it will still have the more hardened of us sniffing into a handkerchief at the end. The power of Leicester’s writing combined with the wonderful acting talent really carries the play through to the very end, providing an engaging watch without being too schmaltzy or nostalgic. The Baby Box is a happy medium between adventurous and traditional that will appeal to many, and have even more running for some Kleenex.
Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30pm and Sundays at 6.00pm. Box Office: 020 7837 7816
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