Review: DRIFTING, Southwark Playhouse

Photo credit: Jimmy Lee Portraits

Drifting is a new play by Andrew Muir in collaboration with the Ardent8 Ensemble. At the core of this play is a want to explore how today’s youth, specifically 26-year-olds from rural and coastal communities, are often stuck between a rock (burning passion) and a hard place (indolence informed by home comforts).

Muir’s writing and direction captures minutiae of rural upbringings; feelings of responsibility to your family and community directly conflicting with feelings that you want something more. This tug of war is omnipresent in Drifting, and the use of bucolic and coastal imagery throughout further enforces the “ebb and flow” of the Young Man’s predicament. The play is also enriched by the dangers that nature can pose too, such as the sting of a weever fish or the unknown hauntings of sea fog/mist, undoubtedly drawing parallels to the fears of leaving one’s place of birth for the big city.

The Ardent8 project’s mission statement of supporting young artists from outside of London facing barriers to their careers marries well with the plot and undoubtedly contributes to the sincerity of each character assumed by the ensemble.

Trae Walsh as the Young Man is in equal measure vulnerable as he is indecisive and succeeds in giving the other characters a foundation to build from, and this they all did triumphantly.

Bethan Wall’s set and costume design adapts well to our journeying through this small town. The intimacy and smallness of the sleepy town is felt, with the small changes of set and lighting enforcing the characters’ lifelong familiarity with their home.

At times, there is some confusion as to certain characters’ purpose. There are moments where the Stranger seems to be playing an Orwellian Big Brother and/or inner voice of the Young Man, but others where she interacts with the Father. This inconsistency proved confusing. At times, certain messaging is also repetitive, though the ensemble’s comic sincerity begets forgiveness in this regard from an audience.

Drifting succeeds in showing the cost and weight of following one’s passions and the wonder promised beyond, without sacrificing the integrity of those who choose to remain at home. Catch it before it drifts away!

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Jeff Mostyn

Drifting plays at London’s Southwark Playhouse Borough until 22 November, with further info here.