Review: BRACE BRACE, Royal Court Theatre

Digging deep into human nature, Oli Forsyth’s Brace Brace combines the pace and excitement of a thriller with an unexpectedly perceptive intelligence. Ambitiously designed and skillfully directed, it’s a deeply engrossing piece of theatre. 

The Royal Court’s upstairs studio theatre is a fantastic little space, and this is one of the best uses of it to date. In a traverse layout, designer Anna Reid has transformed the room into a dimly lit airport, with a winding walkway around the edge, a dramatically slanted central ramp/aisle, and a glaring overhead light. As a set, it creates suspense even before the play begins, throwing audiences into a high stakes environment. Once the drama is underway, the persistent presence of the plane serves as a reminder to both characters and audience of the trauma we can’t escape. 

Enter newlyweds Sylvia (Anjana Vasan) and Ray (Phil Dunster). Off on their honeymoon, the pair begin by recounting the story of how they met, with a familiar rapport and stand-up sensibility. We learn that Sylvia works in marketing, while Ray is a comic-turned-school teacher. Their comfortable, mundane lives are turned upside down, quite literally, when their flight is hijacked, and they find themselves making split-second life-or-death decisions. In the wake of an unreal experience, their differing reactions turn them into very different people, driving a wedge between the formerly happy couple.

On the surface, Forsyth’s script is a straightforward thriller. The plane crash itself is a feat of direction, design, and stage combat, with the actors dashing around the central ramp amid strobing lights and booming sound. It’s real edge of your seat stuff. Director Daniel Raggett successfully finds the tone of a blockbuster movie within a small-scale theatre, while sound designer Paul Arditti and lighting designer Simeon Miller create almost an immersive aeroplane experience for audience members without ever straying towards tackiness. 

The character work going on just beneath this, however, is just as interesting if not more so. With razor-sharp intelligence, writer Forsyth unpicks themes of paranoia, justice, trauma, and love. The script examines how our character can completely shift in the face of life-changing events and how easily someone can slip into a state of constant fear and distrust, of black-and-white thinking. Audiences are made to think hard, faced with moral dilemmas and different accounts of the truth.

Cleverly littered with moments of foreshadowing and unexpected parallels, the writing works on two levels: as an objectively entertaining disaster story, and as a thought-provoking investigation of the cycles of terror. 

Vasan, known for her roles in Killing Eve and in the recent West End Streetcar, is deeply compelling as Sylvia, believable both as a warm-hearted, grounded adult and as a changed woman, overcome with terror. She is well matched by Dunster as her husband Ray, who is smarmy one minute and desperate the next. Both edge around unlikeability with each turn of the story, occupying a fascinating morally grey area.

Craige Els’s agile multi-rolling as other secondary characters is well-handled both by him and by director Raggett, who uses the multi-rolling to expand the presentation of paranoia and recognition. Els is especially strong in his scene as the flight’s guilt-ridden pilot, both vulnerable and physically intimidating. 

It may not be boundary-pushing or genre-altering, but Brace Brace is a fantastic example of scripted stage drama done exceptionally well. With ingenious design, insightful direction, strong performances, and a clever script, this an all-round excellent piece of theatre, and one that deserves a bigger audience.

Brace Brace runs at the Royal Court (Jerwood Theatre Upstairs) until 9 November

Cover Image Credit: Helen Murray

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