Review: Bindweed, Arcola Theatre

The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is about the biggest of the open opportunities for writers, and it’s always interesting to see what the panel choose as the winner. They tend to be zeitgeist-y, and I don’t always love them, but I thought I’d check out this victor from the 2022 contest.

First we meet Brian (Sean Kingsley bringing shades of Steve Pemberton), an apparently good-natured fella who tells us about beginning a relationship with a female colleague. It seems a rather sweet set-up, but then we learn things have gone wrong…

Next up are Peter and Jen (Shailan Gohil and Laura Hanna), out on a date. He’s immediately identifiable as an unreconstructed man, unaware of his boorishness as he attempts to pay for the drinks in an outdated attempt at chivalry. He also works in sales, that nursery for “results-driven” egos and competitiveness. Jen is having no truck with it, holding her own against his charm offensive and ending the encounter with a barely civil handshake and no plans for a second meeting.

After this pair of aperitif scenes we arrive at the meat of the play. Jen is an ex-cop who’s starting a new job facilitating group therapy sessions for men convicted of physically assaulting women. It’s a structural format which cannily allows playwright Martha Loader to probe a number of iterations of the violence of men.

The group consists of Brian, obnoxious wide-boy Mike (Simon Darwen), priest Frank (Moray Treadwell), and young father-to-be Charlie (Gohil again). Each has their own story illustrating different permutations of the play’s themes, and Loader handles the timing of crucial reveals with great skill.

Outside the group sessions, we learn more about Jen’s history and why she left the police for her new role. Her relationship with friends Nina (Josie Brightwell) and Ed (Darwen) punctures some complacent assumptions, particularly when Jen challenges them about their nonchalant attitude to their young son’s discovery of internet porn. We also meet Peter a few more times, and find he remains steadfastly ignorant of the inappropriateness of his behaviour.

Bindweed expertly balances relaying its salient points with dramatising them, bringing the issues to life in that way that the best of theatre does. It’s never patronising or obvious and provides many heightened moments that quicken the pulse without cheapening the subject matter.

There isn’t a weak link in the cast, and the multi-rolling is exemplary. The show is anchored by a superlative performance from Hanna, who makes Jen a fascinatingly compelling and complicated character. Special mention to Gohil, whose breakdown as he faces the seemingly unbreakable cycle of abuse passing down through the generations is an intensely moving highlight. But this really is a dream cast performing a terrific script faultlessly.

The production is simply staged, with just an arch of mashed-up wooden chairs framing the action in an unobtrusive but pleasing design note, courtesy of Lulu Tam. Director Jennifer Tang marshals the multiple storylines with unfussy aplomb.

Loader never falls into the trap of explaining the behaviour she explores, or suggesting any sort of solution to it. To have done so would have been a terrible mistake and robbed Bindweed of its power to provoke so intelligently. We must take away what we’ve seen and absorb it – the rest is up to us.

Would a queer strand have added to the breadth of the discussion? Maybe, but one play can’t address everything, and on this occasion the Bruntwood judges are to be congratulated on selecting a genuinely brilliant winner of their prize.

Written by: Martha Loader

Directed by: Jennifer Tang

Produced by: High Tide, Mercury Theatre, The New Wolsey Theatre, Royal Exchange Theatre

Bindweed plays at the Arcola Theatre until Saturday 13th July.

Further information and booking can be found here.