Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Wednesday 14th February 2018
Unpolished Theatre, in association with the Pleasance Theatre Trust, takes us into East London with a combination of
William Shakespeare's lines and additional dialogue in the vernacular, in Elliot Warren's
Flesh and Bone. We come face to face with a couple, Tel and Kel, Terence and Kelly to give them their full names, her Granddad, Tel's brother, Reiss, and Jamal, the local drug dealer. Elliot Warren and Olivia Brady, who play Tel and Kel, formed Unpolished Theatre in October 2016.
These are residents of some of the many blocks of flats to be found throughout London, edifices that sprung up in the 1960s as old terrace houses were demolished as slum clearance. Councils replaced them with the new slums, toxic environments that spawned generations of criminals, losers, and the scum of the earth, if you believe the mainstream media.
Violence is there from the start as the whole cast is discovered, drinking in the local pub, and Tel throws a glass over his shoulder, unfortunately hitting Jamal in the back of the head. Alessandro Babalola towers over the rest of the cast, and has muscles on his muscles. His imposing physique, powerful body language, and threatening facial expressions, coupled with superb acting, makes Jamal a man to fear, and Tel does fear him. Babalola is perfect in the role.
Tel is no weakling; he loves a good fight, and almost seeks violence as his raison d'être, giving Elliot Warren opportunity to repurpose some of the Bard's marvellous lines, pondering on what it is to be a man. Warren turns what could be a one-dimensional thug into a far more interesting and multifaceted man.
His brother, Reiss, tries very hard to be what Tel expects of him, but he harbours a secret. Michael Jinks creates a character fraught with the anxiety of trying to be one thing, whilst being another, putting up a front which, as we find, others are also doing, for one reason or another.
Granddad is played by Nick T. Frost, presenting a character that we suspect was a very nasty piece of work in his younger days, and is clearly a sleazy old man now, spending most of his time in his room, clad in a dressing gown and wearing heavy gold chains around his neck, to show his affluence, and power. Frost cleverly creates a character that suggests and implies a past, without anything specific on which one can put a finger.
Olivia Brady's Kel is a strong woman, caught in a world filled with testosterone, a men's world in which women are second-class citizens, subordinate and subservient. Brady gives us a Kel who refuses to fit that mould, in a wonderfully complex performance.
This is not a play for sensitive souls, nor for children, with its strong language, explicit sexual references, and violence. It is, however, a play for serious theatregoers, those who seek works that embody what the Fringe was originally all about, challenging, exciting works that stay in the mind for years after. Be sure to get tickets for this one, before they all go.
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