Review: BUG, Found111, March 29 2016

Agnes is going nowhere. She lives in a seedy motel room, boozing and smoking the occasional rock. Her friend, RC (Daisy Lewis, short but not very sweet) introduces a mysterious stranger, Peter, who is a little lost himself, but is both charming and temperamentally the opposite of Jerry, Agnes's abusive estranged husband apparently coincidentally recently released from jail on parole. Soon Agnes is clinging to Peter, "the only good thing in my life", and Peter seems happy to have somewhere to stay (and, possibly, someone to protect). Then Peter sees a bug biting him and things spiral out of control.

Tracey Letts' second play is twenty years old now and at times it shows. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (if Peter's backstory of military service isn't a delusion within a delusion) is better understood these days and there is no reference to the teeming volume of material online concerning crackpot conspiracy theories, the world wide web still in its infancy in 1996. Perhaps, like the absence of mobile phones, that's just a sign of how much things have changed in a relatively short time, but it did make the play a curious mix of the contemporary and the historical.

James Norton brings plenty of star quality to the role of Peter, gradually revealing his psychosis without ever losing control until the die is very much cast. Kate Fleetwood's eyes flash with hate and fear when confronted by Jerry (a menacing turn by Alec Newman) but she visibly softens her spiky speech and aggressive body language as she binds herself ever more closely to Peter, rejecting her previous life to become trapped with him and his bugs.

The play is uncomfortable to watch, quite literally, as we are packed into a space which puts us in the motel room with Peter and Agnes and, showing just how powerfully suggestible we are to the presence of bugs, when they scratch, we scratch. This is especially the case in the second half when I had to work hard to suspend the disbelief and not fidget too much! The excellent sound (by Edward Lewis) certainly helps with the whirring of helicopter blades and screeching of cars that might, or might not, work in the service of military surveillance.

Though many will appreciate a powerful theatrical experience in a unique space, the play tails off in the final half hour into the least interesting conclusion of the many ways the play could go after a fascinating first half. Maybe an update in the light of what we know now about communications, nanotechnology, jihadi terrorism etc would make a more fulfilling and relevant play for 2016. As it is, I left scratching my head in more senses than one.

Bug continues at Found111 until 7 May.

Photo Simon Annand.

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