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Fantastic chemistry between two young performers as they deal with trauma and friendship.Summary
Rating
Good
Following a match on Grinder, Jack (Jacob Seelochan) returns home bleeding, physically and sexually assaulted. Don’t Smoke In Bed deals with the aftermath, his psychological trauma and the effects of it on his life and the flat he shares with Molly (Diya Vencatasawmy).
Seelochan and Vencatasawmy are both effective at immediately showing us the friendship between their characters; the warm banter and the care they have for each other shines through in fantastic chemistry. At first Jack puts on a brave face and downplays the assault, before gradually revealing the trauma and fear he is grappling with – Seelochan shows this quite skilfully, bringing us on this journey with Jack. Molly, initially supportive, helping clean him up and letting him talk, slowly becomes overwhelmed by Jack’s withdrawal, leaving a gap between them. She reaches her limit of understanding and support, causing cracks and eventually a blow-out between them. While the character of Molly is occasionally frustrating, the performance by Vencatasawmy is top-notch.
Harry McDonald’s script is smart and with a lot of respect for the audience, tastefully managing to add humour throughout while dealing sensitively with such a heavy topic. Subtle points around gender disparity, such as Jack suddenly finding dealing with a level of fear which can be a constant for women. These are not hammered upon, rather left for the audience to pick up.
Director Joseph Winer keeps the audience close and tight in the round, while Lu Herbert’s simple set invokes the living room of a student flat, complete with booze and books. When Jack uses Molly’s art course supplies to create a representation of his attacker, he hangs it in their flat. This provides for quite a visual as the gap in understanding between Jack and Molly literally hangs between them, a spectre of Jack’s trauma. Charli Hurford’s lighting subtly changes with the mood of the scene help in transcending VAULT Festival’s Pit venue. The whole atmosphere created is admirable, it doesn’t feel like we are sitting in a damp tunnel.
Don’t Smoke In Bed explores the themes of trauma, coping strategies and friendship with thought-provoking insight. It leaves me thinking about how the characters would deal with this in the long term. I can’t help but imagine an older Molly might look back with regret about her limitations in being able to support her friend.
Written by: Harry McDonald
Directed by: Joseph Winer
Set & Costume Design by: Lu Herbert
Lighting Design by: Charli Hurford
Don’t Smoke In Bed runs until 5 February at VAULT Festival. Tickets and further information can be found here.
