BWW Reviews: IRIS, 3MT, October 8 2014

Domestic violence is a tough yet important topic for theatre to tackle. Iris, a new play by young writer Rebecca-Clare Evans, is the latest attempt to try and shine a light on the problem - but doesn't quite hit the mark.

Iris (Rebecca-Clare Evans) is successful in her job, but not in love. Neighbour Sarah (Francesca Kingdom) - who's got troubles in her 10-year marriage herself - wants to help out - and introduces her to new Sunday football star Ben (Mark Smalley) at the local pub. But what starts as the perfect relationship quickly turns dark - as Ben turns Iris away from her old life, her friends and her job will the old Iris find a way back?

The action moves between the two neighbours' homes and the local pub, where landlord Phil (Gary Overton) and his wife Anne (Karen Allen) provide some much needed comic relief. We see the situation between Iris and Ben get progressively worse as Ben becomes more controlling and more violent - and Iris's friends looking on but unsure of how to help.

Iris is based on true accounts of domestic violence, and some of the stories are presented at the back of the programme - the problem with this kind of production is that sometimes the stories can become a collage of stereotypes rather than focusing on one authentic story. This is the trap that Iris falls in to. It seems to deliver merely a cliché without any real depth to the characters.

It rushes past the first six months of the relationship where Iris and Ben fell in love. But by quickly turning Ben into a monster, and without showing us this history, it's hard to understand what it is that makes Iris keep going back to Ben. The first six months is constantly referred back to, but it needed to be developed in front of the audience.

The cast give a noble attempt, which is clearly important to cast and creative team alike, and they do manage to deliver some lighter moments. The relationship between Anne and Phil, for example, is sweet and funny at the right times.

But ultimately we end up with a sort of maudlin cautionary tale which, whilst wearing its heart on its sleeve, leaves very little for the audience to make its own mind up about.

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