Inner Selves

This four-person play is the first written by Matthew Peter Clare.  The story illustrates the decline of two people's mental health, along with their marriage, and lives.  The breakdown is shown through Henry and Nora and the “cacophonic assault of their inner thoughts”.  The play considers how Henry and Nora have grown tired of each other whilst exploring the trauma they experienced and the lives that they have lived.  Ultimately the play revolves around one bad day of mediocrity with boredom being the final straw for the pair as emotions come to a boil.

Initially we see younger Nora (Chloe Pearson) and young Henry (Josh Woodgate) start their lives together, sharing excitement and anticipation, their delight in their first home, the pleasure of their minimal possessions and the expectation of what is to come covering their wedding and their future potential happiness wrapped up in a black and white ultrasound scan.  With a back drop of gentle music and no words Pearson and Woodgate conveyed to the audience the blissful happiness of their hopes and dreams.  Their world comes crashing down with the loss of the baby and without a word having been spoken on stage the audience are on the precipice of a huge cliff of ‘what if’.

Seven years later we then meet Henry (Dan Poppitt) and Nora (Charlie Clarke) as the couple  are full of angst and bitterness to each other and to the world at large as the writer explores the impact of burnout, depression, trauma and loss.  Both Poppit and Clarke shared the challenges of their current relationship and then we are re-introduced to Pearson and Woodgate who return as the characters ‘inner selves’ -portraying their mentalities.

Poppit was excellent as the tired working man, bitter about being the provider and still failing to communicate with his wife.  He was convincing in his struggle with his own thoughts brought into a physical presence by his mean spirited ‘self’ played by Woodgate.  Woodgate was antagonistic in his pursuit of Henry, bringing him repeatedly to consider suicide and whilst still presenting as the handsome, optimistic young man we had initially met, he was a nasty and contradictory character – both Henry’s really engaged the audience in considering their plight.

Charlie Clarke was the worn-out stay-at-home wife and Clarke brilliantly found the raw physicality in the drudging step and slouching walk as well as the limited, stilted speech of a character who has minimal interactions with the world, but who longs for more.  Pearson as Nora’s ‘self’ was a taunting presence constantly reminding her of what she nearly had and what she would never experience.  Flitting from perspectives Pearson captured the negativity of Nora’s thoughts and repeatedly threw the limitations of her life in her face.  Again, both actors confidently portrayed these challenging characters.

All four performers managed the difficult content well and did not trip over the complexities of the script.  They all also managed the silences well, with appropriate reactions and interactions. 

The play was set in the 1990’s with Henry and Nora on the brink of poverty in a northern working-class town and the set, designed by Anne Loren Enriques Comia, was appropriate.  Properties, sound and light worked well, and the theatre space had been used to the best effect for this play.  Costumes were minimal with only one change (into a wedding dress for Pearson), but the styles were well thought through and the reflective nature of the ‘selves’ clothes compared to the ‘life worn’ costumes of Nora and Henry sat well with the production overall.

The content warning included alcohol, smoking, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, discussion around self-harm, marriage, divorce, loss of child, suicidal thoughts, mental health, swearing and all of these were involved, but always appropriately to sit with the challenging and demanding storyline.   It was a difficult piece to watch.  It allowed the audience to be engrossed in the connections, the relationships, the emotions and the sadness.  The finale scene enabled all the actors to bring to a climax the huge difficulties the characters had faced and carried the audience with them to the end.  An excellent play, well written, brilliantly portrayed and thought-provoking for those watching.

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