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Venue: Southwark Playhouse Borough, London
By Andrew Muir in collaboration with Ardent8 ensemble
Dates of run: Until November 22
Cast: Toby Batt, Olivia McGrath, Trae Walsh, Olivia Israel, Phoebe Woodbridge, Yarrow Spillane, Amirah Alabere, Lewis Allen
Director: Andrew Muir
Running time: 90 minutes
Social divisions have only deepened in the decade since the Ardent company was founded to try to make the world of theatre, long dominated by the privileged classes, less exclusive.
Undeterred, founders Mark Sands and Andrew Muir last year launched a Manifesto for Change to set out another decade of reform and, as a step on the way, Muir’s latest play “Drifting” places centre-stage the frustration and fears of the young who feel stranded in an unspecified seaside town that has lost its identity.
It is a story enriched by the first-hand experience of Ardent’s founders and of the actors it is now bringing to the City, as the characters in “Drifting” refer to what we assume to be London.
The company’s ARDENT8 programme gives eight actors, aged between twenty-one and twenty-six and facing financial and geographic barriers to continuing their career, a chance to perform on a London stage.
Twenty-six is the age of the central character in “Drifting”, who, as a youthful Everyman is named only as Young Man.
Performed by Trae Walsh, the Young Man repeatedly declares “I am twenty-six” as what ought to be a statement of glorious youthful potential takes on the force of failure: he is already twenty-six and still living at home in his parents’ bungalow, his laptop is broken, he has no phone signal and a university degree has led to a zero hours contract.
Because this play is about giving an opportunity to as many as possible, what he does have is seven fellow actors, which feels a generous cast for a low-budget play.
Apart from the Young Man’s parents – played by Phoebe Woodbridge and Toby Batt – they include a girlfriend, played by Yarrow Spillane, a shelf-stacking colleague (Amirah Alabere) and a boss (Lewis Allen).
With the exception of the girlfriend, who says he should go, almost everyone else – from the boss, planning his trajectory to area manager, to his unambitious parents – is willing him to stay and make the best of the limited pleasures on offer.
Even his encouraging girlfiend, apparently far more worldly wise than he, warns of the dangers of the City, which are also evoked by a step ladder belonging to his father that the Young Man carries around. It represents his fear of climbing it, and also the perverseness of his relationship with his father, for whom his son’s rise comes at the price of his being denied the minor satisfaction of keeping their bungalow in good repair.
While the girlfriend alludes to urban peril, Olivia Israel as an assistant at the amusement arcade, conjures up the menace closer to hand with her tales of the horrors meted out by the arcade owner who earns the unimaginable sum of 5,000 pounds a day.
Her story makes for a fine cameo, but the surrealism sits uneasily with the grim realism, which is the production’s strength.
“Drifting” is at its authentic best when we are laughing affectionately, for instance, at Lewis Allen as the absurd boss, or at Phoebe Woodbridge as the Young Man’s kind, gentle mother, rather than wondering what to make of the sadism we are told is lurking among the slot machines.
The fictional message is also muddied by efforts, in the spirit of balance, to show contentment is achievable without dashing off to the City. Arguably, that is academic when the point of the production is to prove it is possible to triumph against the odds.
Drifting
Venue: Southwark Playhouse Borough, London
By Andrew Muir in collaboration with Ardent8 ensemble
Dates of run: Until November 22
Cast: Toby Batt, Olivia McGrath, Trae Walsh, Olivia Israel, Phoebe Woodbridge, Yarrow Spillane, Amirah Alabere, Lewis Allen
Director: Andrew Muir
Running time: 90 minutes
Social divisions have only deepened in the decade since the Ardent company was founded to try to make the world of theatre, long dominated by the privileged classes, less exclusive.
Undeterred, founders Mark Sands and Andrew Muir last year launched a Manifesto for Change to set out another decade of reform and, as a step on the way, Muir’s latest play “Drifting” places centre-stage the frustration and fears of the young who feel stranded in an unspecified seaside town that has lost its identity.
It is a story enriched by the first-hand experience of Ardent’s founders and of the actors it is now bringing to the City, as the characters in “Drifting” refer to what we assume to be London.
The company’s ARDENT8 programme gives eight actors, aged between twenty-one and twenty-six and facing financial and geographic barriers to continuing their career, a chance to perform on a London stage.
Twenty-six is the age of the central character in “Drifting”, who, as a youthful Everyman is named only as Young Man.
Performed by Trae Walsh, the Young Man repeatedly declares “I am twenty-six” as what ought to be a statement of glorious youthful potential takes on the force of failure: he is already twenty-six and still living at home in his parents’ bungalow, his laptop is broken, he has no phone signal and a university degree has led to a zero hours contract.
Because this play is about giving an opportunity to as many as possible, what he does have is seven fellow actors, which feels a generous cast for a low-budget play.
Apart from the Young Man’s parents – played by Phoebe Woodbridge and Toby Batt – they include a girlfriend, played by Yarrow Spillane, a shelf-stacking colleague (Amirah Alabere) and a boss (Lewis Allen).
With the exception of the girlfriend, who says he should go, almost everyone else – from the boss, planning his trajectory to area manager, to his unambitious parents – is willing him to stay and make the best of the limited pleasures on offer.
Even his encouraging girlfiend, apparently far more worldly wise than he, warns of the dangers of the City, which are also evoked by a step ladder belonging to his father that the Young Man carries around. It represents his fear of climbing it, and also the perverseness of his relationship with his father, for whom his son’s rise comes at the price of his being denied the minor satisfaction of keeping their bungalow in good repair.
While the girlfriend alludes to urban peril, Olivia Israel as an assistant at the amusement arcade, conjures up the menace closer to hand with her tales of the horrors meted out by the arcade owner who earns the unimaginable sum of 5,000 pounds a day.
Her story makes for a fine cameo, but the surrealism sits uneasily with the grim realism, which is the production’s strength.
“Drifting” is at its authentic best when we are laughing affectionately, for instance, at Lewis Allen as the absurd boss, or at Phoebe Woodbridge as the Young Man’s kind, gentle mother, rather than wondering what to make of the sadism we are told is lurking among the slot machines.
The fictional message is also muddied by efforts, in the spirit of balance, to show contentment is achievable without dashing off to the City. Arguably, that is academic when the point of the production is to prove it is possible to triumph against the odds.
Barbara Lewis © 2025.
By Barbara Lewis • added recently on London Grip, plays, theatre • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre