Review: RANDOM, Tristan Bates Theatre

A family start their day like any other. A daughter, a younger brother who's still in school, a mum who takes care of everyone and everything, and a dad who often works night-shifts. They don't know that, as they go about their life as normal, their lives are going to be changed forever when police show up on their doorstep. "Death never used to be for the young" says Francesca Amewudah-Rivers in her arresting performance of debbie tucker green's random.

The absurd, arbitrary killing of a young boy is seen through the eyes of his whole family in the one-woman play which, although written in 2008, is as chillingly relevant as it was back then. Directed by John Livesey, Amewudah-Rivers becomes a shapeshifter as she takes on an array of four characters one after the next in the matter of a heartbeat. She owns tucker green's writing and handles the poetic yet conversational traits of the piece with care.

She details the idiosyncrasies of the tragic day, characterising the family members with precise mannerisms and inflections. The sharpness of the script pushes the actress to give an immediate and vividly emotional performance, her stage presence is magnetic as she waltzes through accents and difference in vulnerability. Livesey masters tucker green's rhythm and leads its delivery with method, never allowing Amewudah-River to meander the space aimlessly but guiding her path using Ebubechi Amanda Okpalugo's effectively minimal set.

The large rug, single chair in the middle, and a meticulous lighting design that alternates warm and cold lights to indicate places and states of mind are everything the performer needs to aid her narration. The determined and relentless reflection on knife-crime and the deliberateness of random attacks is poignant and essential. The implosion of the household is a quiet reclusion in their personal grief, and the outside world gradually disappears as the monologue regroups into one point of view.

Nothing has changed in the 11 years since its opening at the Royal Court. The statistics are rising by the year and it's dismaying to see how random has become a timeless piece of theatre.

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