This comedy of three families sharing the one dad has potential, but its characters are all just a bit too one-dimensional Summary
Rating
Good
One dad. Three mums. Five siblings. Dad certainly got around. But not anymore – a fatal heart attack has seen to that. Which is why tonight, six months later, those five siblings (Faith Foakes, Imogen Peck, Malcolm Webb, Mika Rontti and Viola Rizzardi Penalosa) are coming together ready for the will reading.
The hosts for this gathering are Sara and David, English through and through in their behaviours; she is a little repressed and unable to say no, he has slight football hooligan vibes going on. More refined are Italian siblings Sylvia and Lorenzo (I did tell you that Dad got around); Sylvia is very sensitive, and is sure Dad is still with them, the flickering lights clearly a sign from him! The two pairings are already acquainted, albeit clearly not that close. Last of all, Emily, the youngest and newly discovered sibling following Dad’s death, and clearly not welcomed with open arms, especially by Sylvia.
It’s a fun set up, one that certainly offers up plenty of opportunities for both comedy and an exploration of the old adage that blood is thicker than water. But its depiction fails to harness much of that potential. Characters feel rather stereotypical and one dimensional, and any depth that the script tries to imply is just inconsistent in its delivery. In one conversation Sylvia first tells Sarah how jealous she is of her perfect life but then proceeds to tell her how boring she is. It’s these little inconsistencies that start to stand out, meaning it is difficult to really understand what we are meant to make of each character.
The one exception is Emily. Throughout you can see she feels the odd one out. She regularly protests she doesn’t want to be there and yet you know that’s not strictly true; rather she wants to be part of the family she never knew existed whilst growing up. It’s a question of whether being the most fully fleshed out character means this is also the best performance of the five, or whether it’s because of a strong performance that Emily feels more realised. Either way Emily should be the template for what’s needed elsewhere to make the whole work better.
Other performances are not quite so convincing, maybe because of the lack of depth the performers are working with, producing too much screaming and shouting without proper control. There is a skill to shouting on stage in a way that still leaves the argument coherent, and that’s something that’s missing here. Likewise, moments of playfulness are disorganised and in need of the director (Alexandra Rizkallah) to get a better grip; these moments have their place as they show the adults acting like children, making up for the moments lost from their separated childhoods, but they need to be handled better.
Credit where it’s due, Rizkallah does get the in-the-round performance right. The five are placed around the large rug that signifies the lounge of Dad’s home, but are regularly moving and so rarely leaving their back to one side of the space for too long. It has a much more natural feel.
House Apart does have some charm and promise which means it’s a perfectly fine contribution to Camden Fringe. It needs to do much more, however, if it has any intentions of a future life, beginning with a careful look at its characters to give them more depth and something for actors to really get their teeth into.
Written by Viola Rizzardi Penalosa and Long Pause Productions
Directed by Alexandra Rizkallah
Produced by Carmen Anderson for Long Pause Productions
Houses Apart has now completed its run at Cockpit Theatre.
