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 Lily (Laura Elphinstone) has eyes for fisherman Kenneth (Tom Burke) |
Reflections of a burning mind
GLASS EELS
Bridewell Theatre
LATE August, on the Somerset Levels. Each night, gawky adolescent Lily (Laura Elphinstone) flees the confines of her family home and sneaks out to the river where her mother drowned.
In this forbidden place, as the eels squirm in the silt beneath her toes, the young girl is confronted by visions of her mother and new, painful feelings for taciturn fisherman Kenneth (Tom Burke).
Nell Leyshon’s play about sexual awakening, star-crossed romance and everything you always wanted to know about eels but were afraid to ask, is a shimmering, dream-like piece that charms and mesmerises for most of its 80-minute running time.
The striking water-logged set cannily doubles as humble home and river bank, with a giant oblong of cracked, burnished silver hanging above, reflecting the rippling water and Lily’s burning mind.
Laura Elphinstone shines as the awkward Lily, ears bobbing out of her hair, sullen and confused. Tom Georgeson gives a rum turn as the perpetually hungry, sweating grandfather Harold and Phillip Joseph holds the family dynamic together convincingly as Lily’s father Mervyn, who is discreetly courting new flame Julie (Diane Beck).
At times Leyshon’s lilting, prosaic West Country script veers towards Vicky Pollard territory; the affecting but simple themes grow a little stretched and the eel motif is definitely overplayed. But if Glass Eels feels occasionally guilty of treading water, there is enough sparse beauty and moments of quality to keep the production afloat.
Until July 21
020 7722 9301 |
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