Review: THE SOLID LIFE OF SUGAR WATER, Orange Tree Theatre

Warning: This review contains references to still birth.

There are times when a theatre production hits you with such raw, uncomfortable truth that it stays with you. The Solid Life of Sugar Water is one such play. Directed by winner of the 2022 JMK Award, Indiana Lown-Collins, this is a deeply intimate play, in the intimate setting of the Orange Tree. It is graphic, messy and embarassing in content, but there is nowhere to hide.

Jack Thorne originally wrote this play in 2015 for Graeae, a theatre company who put deaf and disabled people at the heart of their productions. It then went on to run at The National Theatre in 2016. Deaf actor Katie Erich plays Alice and is joined by disabled actor Adam Fenton as Phil. These issues are given a brief nod (Phil thinks Alice's deafness is "exotic"), then the story moves on.

Communication is the central theme: how we can talk, but not always understand what someone else thinks or feels. The play opens with a frank dissection of problems with sex that could only happen in the intimacy of a couple's bed; it is extremely graphic, hyper-realistic and very funny. That is, until you realise why they are struggling to connect. Having lost a baby at birth, they are now trying to claw their way back to life together.

It is also a love story. Fenton is sweetly amiable as Phil, slightly awkward but clearly besotted with Alice. Erich is more intense, angrier, with sharper reactions. The two have a spiky, but visibly loving chemistry. It is a very physical performance from both, as each action is played out, using pillows and sheets as body parts and other objects.

In a piece of beautifully balanced writing, Thorne brings light in, as the couple recall their meeting and early courtship. A chance meeting in a Post Office queue and an exploding box containing a sex toy leads to love. This story could seem almost twee in juxtaposition with the darkness of the loss of their daughter, but both actors move effortlessly from the touching awkwardness of their early relationship, to the almost primeval pain of loss.

The irony of having the word 'sugar' in the title is clear, as there is little sugar-coating to the story. Sex and relationships are not always orderly; they can chaotic, smelly, complicated and painful.

Some of Thorne's detail is excruciating; a scene where Phil graphically plays out a sexual encounter, while Alice enacts giving birth to a child she knows is already dead hits you in the stomach. The mention of blood on the car seat, the fact that Phil did not change the sheets before Alice came home; these things are devastating in their quotidian quality.

Their tragedy is two-fold; there is the overarching shadow of the death of their daughter, but there is also the potential start of death of their relationship.

In keeping with the inclusivity of the piece, Sarah Readman's creative captions are bold and imaginative. A short scene where Alice signs her thoughts, rather than speaks, draws the audience into her world.

Ica Niemz's design features a double bed with a transparent frame centre stage, set on an illuminated, silvery abyss below, suggesting the chasm their relationship is teetering upon .

There is no doubt that the explicit details of sex, bodies and birth, will be too much for some. However, there will be fewer plays this year that feel so intrinsically honest.

Support resources for the issues covered are available here.

Every performance will include creative captions, with British Sign Language (BSL) interpreted performances will taking place on Thursday 10 November at 7:30pm and Saturday 12 November at 2:30pm.

The Solid Life Of Sugar Water is at The Orange Tree Theatre until 12 November

Photo Credit: Ellie Kurttz

To post a comment, you must register and login.