Review: TORN APART (DISSOLUTION), The Hope Theatre

Set in three bedrooms, the same emotional world under three different roofs in time, Torn Apart (Dissolution) is an intimately powerful play. BJ McNeill (writer and director) bares an array of human feelings, captured on stage in singular snapshots of differently shared lives.

Alina and an American soldier, Elliot and Casey, and Holly and Erica's love stories span three decades and are profoundly intertwined: from Bremen, West Germany, in the 1980s where Alina (Nastazja Somers) meets a handsome soldier (Charlie Allen) and has an intense and complicated relationship with the man; to London in 1999 where Elliot (Elliot Rogers) and Casey (Christina Baston) passionately live their early twenties in a haze of infatuation and hope for their futures; ending up in London, now, where Holly (Sarah Hastings) has fallen in love with Erica (Monty Leigh) and goes to great lengths to rationalise her feelings for her girlfriend, a daughter and an ex-husband she feels she has to answer to.

Their liaisons are marred by a past that permeates every word. McNeill creates an intricate (but crystal clear) web of relations, showing the trappings of time and how convoluted relationships actually are. His characters' distinctive journeys (some of which were inspired by real events in the playwright's life) are earnestly heart-wrenching.

Somers' joyful and sexually charged exchanges with Allen take a turn when her character is stripped of her dreams of a future with him. "Say what you mean, stop making me guess!" she commands as love slowly curdles to hate. It's in in their last heartbreaking and shocking moments together that Somers reveals the depth of her performance.

As the American soldier allocated in West Germany, Allen is impeccable. From what he describes as "the happiest time of my life" to being faced with his duties, his depiction of ideals and expectations is fervent and sincere, and the dainty awe towards Somers' Alina is captivating.

The emotional damage all the characters share has a stunning catharsis in Rogers' work as Elliot. Abandoned as a child and finally experiencing the first moment of stability and honest love with Casey, his world falls apart when the Australian girl confesses that her visa expiring will mean a one-way ticket back to her homeland.

But Baston's Casey communicates a longing to go back home and to see her family again after two years. With her storyline, Torn Apart (Dissolution) considers the grief of being away from everything you know, which isn't dimmed by a newfound love and lingers profoundly in one's life. She understands that staying in London would involve a bigger sacrifice she's actually willing to make, so she voluntarily puts Elliot and herself on a painful road.

Holly and Erica's relationship is probably the most complex in McNeill's play. Holly's previous relationship and the discovery of her true self weigh on Erica, who feels that she has to deal with her own issues by herself. The latter's desire to be close to her girlfriend and have a normal life in the open is initially marred by Holly's overthinking and controlling nature.

Hastings and Leigh's performances are acutely genuine and with McNeill's moving addition of addiction and illness, their characters seem to have a direct parallel to Somers and Allen's, creating an intense neverending circle. Just like the others, they come together for few intense, stunning moments, but their love is disrupted by outside elements.

The three stories take place in a scantily furnished bedroom, enclosed within a crate made of string. The characters are trapped, caged by their feelings, bound together (and to the world) by a constant and agonising search for something more that makes them feel alive. The set brilliantly evokes the soul of the play, giving a visual representation of the predicaments that take place within.

McNeill's direction obviously demonstrates a deep understanding of these characters, and displays naked bodies in such a raw and organic way that it only feels natural. The progressive use of more and more clothing is also an indicative and meaningful detail.

"Everything is slipping out of my control," Holly tells Erica, and it's exactly what happens to the other characters too. McNeill analyses how a simple step in arguably the wrong direction may lead to destruction. Torn Apart (Dissolution) is a universal and yet personal reflection on the human condition and the agonising effects of love, its inclusion of feminism and characters that don't fit into singular boxes making it a lasting and progressive piece of theatre.

Torn Apart (Dissolution) runs at The Hope Theatre until 22 July.

Photo credit: Scott Rylander.

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