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A stylish, creative production that captures the imagination as well as the heart. Summary
Rating
Excellent
In Burnt Up Love, writer and director Ché Walker pushes boundaries with his poetic and vivid dialogue, disclosing a state where characters emotionally and physically crash and burn, seemingly only to illuminate an inescapable cycle of pain.
From the confines of his prison cell a violent father (played by Ché Walker with calm, unnerving sensitivity) is idealistically obsessed by his daughter, Scratch. He knows of her through an old photo adorning his cell wall and this imagined reality keeps him motivated. Joanne Marie Mason plays Scratch with a sustained vocal and physical energy that excites and repels in equal measure. It is a dynamic performance, drawing us into her chaotic world. She, like her unremembered father, is captured in time.
On his release, having served his time, he seeks Scratch. However, the perception of an idealised daughter by an absent father proves in reality wayward, destructive. Any tenderness is denied as quickly as it is desired. She has a new love, JayJayJay, played by Alice Walker, who (delightfully embracing of all things) provides a harbour in a storm for the chaotic Scratch. This she does with a warmth and a perspective that eludes Scratch. For a moment it calms, and intimacy pacifies as a relationship grows, only to predictably wither.
A sadness envelopes the play as it probes lost love, both of self and of others. It opens in darkness, a strong visual metaphor for a subject and intentions that are shrouded in shadow. At first a searchlight looks for the hidden or incarcerated individual and, though briefly illuminated, they never really reach the light. The candles do not burn brightly but offer us glimpses of behaviours, passages of time and quixotic moments that stir pity and fear. At times the actions are impulsive and attitudes risible, yet Walker’s writing draws us in to feel the pain of individuals who cannot navigate their world or their desires.
The dark-filled performance space, with candle-lit plinths, draws us in to murky self-destruction, where our emotional reality is skewered by behaviours so troubled that even moments of stable tenderness still resonate a certain danger. Such feelings seem difficult to disengage from when the protagonists observe actions at a distance, without empathy. Indeed, when inadequate explanations justify impulsive violence and are somehow rationalised we flinch, because their fighting switch is flicked and verbal, vocal and venial outbursts ensue, all too quickly producing mortal results. It is a credit to Walker’s writing that we so fully engage with the turmoil of this dark, distressing tale.
His characters are layered and intriguing. JayJayJay feels her troubles are a phase and keeping out of them may just be possible. In contrast, Scratch seems unable to grow away from the violence and trauma that haunts and provokes her – sins of the father? Alice Walker and Mason spar and flicker, scamper and scrap with contemporary flair, offering hope and despair in their detailed characterisations.
Juliette Demoulin’s set design is suitably sparse, but to have had some stool or bench incorporated into the staging would improve sight lines. However, the direction feels fluent and creates a fleeting sense of being.
The play is bolstered by Uchenna Ngwe’s soundscape, which highlights key attitudes, creating atmospheres of attack or surrender. At times the music is sublime (in stark contrast with the behaviours), and at other times it undulates with a core of distress and foreboding felt by the protagonists: both ominous and unsettling.
Burnt Up Love highlights that shining a light on destructive behaviours does not always illuminate the individual, as the beauty in the brute is often out of reach. As the playwright says, “silk on a rock”.
Written and Directed by Ché Walker.
Original Music by Uchenna Ngwe.
Additional Music by Sheila Atim.
Set Design by Juliette Demoulin.
Lighting Design by Venus Raven.
Presented by Kit Thompson in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre.
Burnt Up Love plays at the Finborough Theatre until Saturday 23 November. Further information and booking details can be found here.
