A Reflective Tale About Relationships at the Tabard Theatre

Susan Stanley-Carroll reviews Small House At The Edge Of The World

Chris Lee’s “Small House at the Edge of the World” is a reflective tale about relationships and takes the audience on a journey through the murky labyrinth of thoughts, projected by two fragile characters. Upbeat it is not, but the play offers a convincing representation, if challenging to watch at times, of what marriage can deliver in the minds of husbands and wives.

As the writer states, “we are constantly flowing personalities that bind and part and rebind. Some of us are better at long term relationships than others”.

Indeed, and Lee’s play brings these very challenges to the fore.

Millennials, rather than W4’s Baby Boomers, may appreciate the play the most as it explores the tangled relationship of this husband and wife as they recall moments from their fraught marriage of twenty years.

It has shades of Albee’s ‘Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ pulsing through it and Lee’s script is enigmatic and emotional. Brought to the fore are the couple’s thoughts as they collide and produce moments of happiness but more often of deep despair, when they reflect on their dysfunctional relationship and their dysfunctional families.

Did they fail themselves? Did they also fail their only child? These are the sort of heart-aching questions put before the audience. Even the snide comments of their in-laws are recalled. Yes, there is much anger and much soul searching within this scarred couple!

A joy to watch…

An intriguingly curious set beguiled the audience as a blur of a mist and erratically festooned newspaper was spread across tables and chairs. Symbolic of a tangled world? Perhaps. And as music played, the set morphed dramatically into a room. “A Room in a Small House at the Edge of the World.”

The elegant wife is played exquisitely by Laura Pradelska. At times she moves away from their gloom; her luminous, charismatic smile and twinkling eyes lift the emotionally bleak atmosphere as moments of happiness invade the couple’s lives. She projects her anguish with passion, yet her moments of joy are palpably positive: “It was pure bliss” she recalled. Not in reference to her marriage, but the loneliness of the Small House. Laura is a joy to watch.

Playing the part of the impotent husband is James Sygrove. He frothed with anguish and desperate confusion. A painful and pitiful character to observe, but the interaction between James and Laura is a skilful display of dramatic teamwork. They mingle and mix, shout and scream, and smile and laugh, in what is a derelict liaison of despair.

But was it all necessary?

However, the play would have benefitted from more rigorous editing and perhaps the undressing of the husband (coyly acted and dimly lit) was unnecessary. The symbolism of the white roses and the empty suitcases also felt somewhat forced, although the theme song of the nursery rhyme “Lavender’s Blue” added a poignancy and a depth to this exploration of two needy and emotionally dissatisfied individuals.

The mobile newspaper set of the Director Ken McClymont was innovative and his confident direction enabled his actors to thread their way through their emotional maze. The lighting by Luke Francis was strong and added a lustre to this enigmatic play.

The first staging of ‘Small House at the Edge of the World’ certainly offered an acting tour de force - over 90 minutes without an interval! The cast delivered what is a bleak-poetic drama with aplomb and the poignancy of the production lingers on. Some might indeed think it lingers for too long. But, of course, the Tabard is perhaps best placed for this kind of play. A glass of red wine, sipped after the show, will help the evening’s sorrows to fade and a wiser dawn to appear.

Susan Stanley-Carroll

September 15, 2018