Review: Managed Approach, Riverside Studios

Cutting between verbatim interviews of the real sex workers of Holbeck, collected by the company itself, and the interwoven story of a mother and daughter who live in the area, Managed Approach is not only incredibly well performed, but also platforms an important discussion about women’s safety in all forms versus women’s freedom, and the impact legislation has on both.

The mother-daughter relationship portrayed by Jules Coyle (Abby) and Eanna Ferguson (Kate) is brought to life with an accuracy painful for any woman’s reflection on her own generational inheritance. Both of these performances are truly, truly outstanding. Ferguson’s ability to seamlessly transform into a woman twice her age is astounding to the point where the audience forgets the similarity in age between the two actresses entirely. Any dialogue in Coyle’s hands is magical, and her transition from a loud, hilariously accurate drunk girl in a club, to raw vulnerability where the audience feels the danger of her situation, is effortlessly chilling and truly a pleasure to behold. This nightclub scene is especially well handled from a technical and acting perspective; the lights and overwhelming sound design are immersive to the point that the viewer’s own experience of being eighteen in a club comes rushing back with a mixture of nostalgia and pity for their younger self. Stanley Alice Hunt’s sound design throughout is richly detailed and skilfully compiled.

Áine McNamara and H Sneyd’s reenactments of verbatim interviews are handled with a profound humility and realism, where dialogue feels more spontaneous than many a real-world conversation. Both actors approach their dialogue with a gentleness that galvanises the audience’s instinct to protect these women from the dangers they enumerate, which then elegantly guides viewers to Abby’s point of view in the argument with her mother, an argument which haunts their relationship from the beginning.

However, the interviewed sex workers’ physical integration with the stage as a construct is sometimes jarring. A chair is placed off to one side of the stage and the actors get up from the front row of the audience repeatedly, a somewhat underwhelming transition that detracts from the brilliance of the content. The chair and microphone become a nondescript interview location, perfectly and appropriately anonymous as a stage device, but the layout of the stage, two smaller interactions with that interview space by the main actors, and the actors seated in the audience leave the entire area feeling unbalanced. But, with more intention in physically setting these moments specifically against the main narrative, this play is nothing short of stunning.

This production is a must-see for so many reasons – the acting, the writing, the verbatim interviews, the awareness it provides about the history of sex work in Britain, and the ever-present struggle to balance women’s freedom and women’s safety from a legislative and personal point of view.

Written by Jules Coyle
Directed by Lily Ellis
Assistant Director: Arianna Muñoz
Produced by Margaret Saunderson

Managed Approach plays at Riverside Studios until Saturday 25 April