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An unconvincing interpretation of a great idea, Snakes and Ladders is a Losing Game turns board game tension to the max, in a confusing love triangle-cum-therapy situation.Summary
Rating
Ok
Snakes and Ladders is a Losing Game is showing at the Old Red Lion Theatre as part of their Freshfest, a festival of brand-new theatre. It is genuinely always a privilege to witness a creative act at its birth, to see something no one has before. And I can’t even imagine what the nerves must be like for all involved. My hope is that Snakes and Ladders will live a life beyond tonight, beyond the Old Red Lion, and become the amazing play it has all the potential to be.
Sarah (Casey Taylor-Williams) plays board games with her ex, Jack (River Norris), every Wednesday. Not because it’s ‘their thing’ but because Sarah’s counsellor has told her that’s what she should be doing. She’s in couples counselling with her (unseen) girlfriend, Alice, who also happens to be Jack’s ex as well. We follow them through a handful of evenings when they go through old favourites like Monopoly, Scrabble, and of course Snakes and Ladders.
Writer and director Benedict Esdale has come up with a great concept. Playing is how we learn how to be a person – through imagination, interaction and exploration. Play is its own very legit form of therapy and features in the thoughts and writings of many therapists and psychoanalysts. So, it seems to me to be so simple but so excellent that a play has been written about someone in therapy who has been told to play games.
However, the potential mentioned earlier is not reached tonight. Esdale’s script does not deliver a coherent and natural narrative. Jack and Sarah’s chummy chatter has some out-of-place poetic turns of phrase that leads Taylor-Williams and Norris into some unnatural sounding conversation. We don’t really get to the bottom of what is going on: What drove Sarah to counselling with Alice in the first place? What is it that made a gentle playful lad suddenly turn vicious? These seem like big plot points that fail to make sense come the end.
While the pacing is off – it felt like there was no reprieve from disagreements and tension because they came thick and fast with no let up – the direction is motivating, particularly those little moments of characterisation in the blackouts between scenes. There are details in the actors’ performances that help us believe in their characters.
It is a fantastic idea. Therapy without the therapist in the room, and the potential that playing and games can bring. I do hope you keep running with it, Esdale. Play with it and see what you find.
Written and directed by: Benedict Esdale
Snakes and Ladders is a Losing Game plays at Old Red Lion Theatre until 24 February. Further information available here.
