Review: FACES IN THE CROWD, White Bear Theatre

Dave walked out on Joanne ten years earlier and left her in Sheffield with the bills and the regrets (but no kids) and lives off Old Street. Nearly 40 now, Joanne wants those kids they never had, and comes down to London to get what Dave can provide in a transaction that's based in neither love nor money, but something closer to desperation (her) and guilt (him). Things turn out pretty much as you would expect with those two combustible emotions swirling around a small flat.

Leo Butler's play is revived on the tenth anniversary of its Royal Court run in a London which is much the same in many ways, but so very different in others. Catching the right tone to reflect how this work can be viewed from the perspective of the present day, becomes an issue that director Law Ballard never quite solves.

We get plenty "state of the nation" stuff: the insecurity of freelance work; the booming creative industries of London vs the low paid service sector up North; the vulnerability of migrants to men with money and a sprinkling of casual racism. But, aside from a laptop open but otherwise barely mentioned (Chekhov's gun fails to go pop), we get nothing about online dating, nothing about social media, nothing about commercial surrogacy.

That Dave can both live the life he leads (as a successful freelance recruitment consultant with a minor coke habit) and more or less go off the radar from the perspective of all his old Sheffield connections, just doesn't add up. Are we in 2018, 2008 or 1958?

In a two-hander, the actors need chemistry and commitment. Seeing the play early in its run can skew one's appreciation of those elements, but there was already tons of commitment on show as the unresolved issues tumble forth.

Adam Bone gets the passive aggression of Dave right, with his almost palpable need to demonstrate that he may have been a shit back in the day, but he's successful (well, successfulish) now, with his oft-mentioned plasma TV a totem to his monetary worth.

Bonnie Adair channels Joanne's bitterness through putdowns and her matter-of-fact approach to sex, curiously diminishing Dave's self-esteem just when she needs him to perform (or else she actually wanted the sex as it happened - which may take us into some very dubious territory).

As for the chemistry, I'm afraid that not much of that came across on the first night. Disastrous marriage it may well have been, but the absence of any shared moments of humour, the awkwardness of personal boundaries, the psychological distance between them, suggested not a couple who had suffered a haemorrhage in their relationship, but one that had never actually existed at all. Which might not matter, but, well... no spoilers.

Like one's reaction to comedy, how one feels about this kind of play is very personal. Too much shouting, too much hate, too much emoting in an intimate venue that literally invites us into Dave's (rented) studio flat rather wore me out - it's a gruelling all-through 90 minutes or so. I understood why Joanne and Dave behaved the way they did, but I just didn't care enough about a pair of individuals with (as they say these days) no filter. There's always an audience for these upmarket soap-opera storyline plays - but I'm not in it I'm afraid.

Faces in the Crowd continues at the White Bear Theatre until 31 March.

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