RATING: 3/5
CORRECTLY approaching delicate issues like autism or sexual assault entails a challenging task.
Chris Honey, director of Our Boy – from the minds of Helen Hamond and Building Blocks Collective – manages to expose them in a sensitively powerful way.
The show starts as Karen (Angela Milton) runs down the stairs asking the audience if we have seen her boy.
Jo is late for school. A direct address that immediately immerses us in the story.
Promptly after, her son Jo appears in the background. He is holding onto his swing, dishevelled, lost and distraughtly vulnerable. A man has raped him.
As the silently heartbreaking scene untangles, Karen calls Andrew (Kareem Nasif), Jo’s dad, for help.
Jo’s parents, two former young lovers, have grown apart by their unwillingness to empathise with each other.
As they flashback to their relationship, they stand on two opposite sides of the stage, adding to the fracture in their marriage.
An apparently absent dad with an overwhelmingly present mum combusts, and Karen leaves for her mother’s house, desperate for a rest.
Father and son are left alone.
Andrew faces a puzzle with hidden or just inexistent pieces. Not knowing where to start, he plunges into the challenge of fatherhood.
As the story unravels, we get to see their relationship flourish. One of giving and receiving. Of meeting halfway.
Dorian Todd’s (Jo) acting is impressive. He uncovers Jo’s pain and shows us who Jo is. Jo becomes our boy too.
Lighting throughout the show stands out. It blends into each scene’s emotional context, enveloping the audience into the storyline.
There are different plot holes throughout the show though, like what happens to Karen whilst she is away.
Here, the show misses the opportunity to explore her realisation that maybe wrapping Jo in cotton wool is not the best option.
The show fails to grab the full potential of the story it carries.
Our Boy is a solid recommendation for this year’s Fringe, in spite of its failure to fully explore all sides of the plot.
An impressive performance on realisation and forgiveness that shines a light on fragile issues.
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