REVIEW - Plane crash drama BU21 at Birmingham's Old Joint Stock theatre is worth hanging on in there for - The Redditch Standard

REVIEW - Plane crash drama BU21 at Birmingham's Old Joint Stock theatre is worth hanging on in there for

Redditch Editorial 5th Feb, 2023   0

ON THE face of it, a play about a fictitious terrorist outrage in which a plane is shot down over London killing its hundreds of passengers and killing and maiming many more on the ground with its falling debris, seems sad fare for a good night out.

After all, if we want instant depression we can turn the television to any number of 24-hour news channels and see the latest real horrors from war-torn countries – so why subject yourself to actors giving you more of the same but with lipstick, powder and paint?

That was my thoughts before reviewing this Old Joint Stock production out of literary duty. Especially, I thought, when the flyer states ‘based on real testimonies gathered from the 7/7, 9/11, Paris and more survivors’.

A pie. a pint and a play had never seemed bleaker!




How wrong was I?! As off-course as the pretend flight number BU21 was blown, when the non-existent missile hit it in the make-believe outrage.

The big reveal of entertaining production values was a good thing, a very, very good thing! Because – hurrah!


I’m not watching a moralistic drama documentary but an immersive piece of theatre with characters I care about played by a refreshing, young, energetic cast, sculptured by an equally energetic and talented new director, Matt Bond.

Slade’s play is far from flawless, it’s overlong and so full of f***s from every character that it often dulls and distances, rather than embraces.

It’s also, for me, a one-act play dragged needlessly out into two. Particularly relevant at the OJS where interval drinks are two floors down and two floors back up for round two.

Sadly, the choice to stay downstairs for another drink was too tempting for some audience members, which was a great pity because act two is where the cleverness of Slade makes his a voice well worth listening to.

In essence, act one is filled with a bunch of youngsters from the BU21 ‘survivors club’ who introduce themselves and their stories through monologues.  This structure is a handicap whereas act two integrates our narrators and takes their stories down some wonderfully unexpected rabbit holes.

Matt Bond directs with a fine brush and a pallet full of passion – he has drilled his company into making the most of what Slade has given him to work with and uses the intimate acting space to full dramatic effect.

In a creative move dictated apparently by the writer, the actors use their own Christian names as character names.

Whilst the purpose of this little secret is lost on me, the survivors club comprise –  Bella Bowen bringing sassiness to a girl who’s trying to come to terms with losing her mother in the tragedy, Ned Rudkins as a highly charismatic, narcissistically arrogant opportunist with a touch of ‘Michael Caine as Alfie’, banker.

The there is Annabel Pilcher gets the sympathy vote as a wheelchair using Romanian student who was sunbathing in a park when her legs were badly covered in blazing rocket fuel and Sarjan Hira who gives a highly believable portrayal as a devout Muslim whose cardiologist dad died strapped in his plane seat – so believable in fact we are made to feel guilty of our own thoughts at one point.

Paula Szarek brings depth to her posh girl character with a vulnerable interior popping out from under a hard-knock chick persona.

The final member of the company is Findlay Macdonald – quite splendid as a loathsome opportunist whom fate makes the spokesperson for the survivors.

Coincidentally I reviewed another terrorist outrage play just recently too – The Mercy Seat by Neil Labute. I found Slade’s BU21 a far stronger and much more enjoyable watch.

The Old Joint Stock is a superb fringe theatre space and deserves to be supported, as does this production.

Don’t be put off by the subject matter of BU21 like I thought I would be.

This is both thought-provoking and funny, persevere to act two and you’ll go home theatrically fulfilled.

BU21 runs at The Old Joint Stock until February 11. Click here for times, tickets and more information.

 

**** 

Review by Euan Rose

Euan Rose Reviews

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