The Real Estate

Many thanks to Preston College and their ATA students for inviting me to see their production of Freddie Machin’s ‘The Real Estate.’ This play combines elements of social realism and satire, set in a tower block in central London, the story revolves around private developers who plan to raise rents, forcing current tenants out. However, the resilient residents will not give up their homes easily. They recruit a film crew already shooting on the estate to take on big business and confront their own history in the process. The play delves into themes of gentrification, ownership, and community resilience, making it a thought-provoking and engaging theatrical experience. 

Upon entering the theatre space, the audience were transcended straight into the socio-political themes, with cast members greeting us in character to sign their petition to save their homes and retain the community which has been built for years. This intimate prelude was echoed through various theatrical elements. The show was staged in the round with exit runs feeding through the corners of the boxed seating areas. Often the cast used these runways to undergo some scenes, which placed the action within the audience’s space. To add to this, the space behind the back row of the audience on each of the straights was used throughout the production to further dissolve any barriers between the cast and audience, ensuring the audience remained a part of the action. The show lasted for over 3 hours with only one interval, with short episodic scenes which flitted between the film crew and the residents. For a neurodivergent critique with a limited attention span to remain interested through the entire of the production is a testament to the cast and creative team. This was due to a culmination of contrasting, detailed & substantive characters, played naturalistically, the variety of ways in which the staging was used, the juxtaposition of energy and pace between the different scenes and the addition of multimedia to add further dimensions to the storytelling. 

With a cast as large as it was, to call all and remark on each actor’s performance would result in a menial review. Holistically, the cast worked well together. As expected with a student performance, there were varying levels of skills within the cast, my preference and attention was drawn to the actors who went further than the text to create their characterisations, but all blended well to bring this story to life and taking the audience on a slow burn to drill in the statements set out within the narrative. I must praise the entire cast for their investment to focus and the retention of character for such sustained periods. 

There were some key stand-out performances for me, which I will deliberate further within the rest of this review, and the above sentiment is my comment against all members of the cast. 

The narrative opened with an epic moment of reminiscence from the character Frank, who was played by Horatio Goldthorpe. This performance was immense, using physicality and vocal work, with a touch of make-up and some Brill-cream, or such like, to instil ensure believability that this was a gentleman of age, it is a testament to say that it was tricky to remember this was a student at college age playing this part. He gave great insight into the depth of the character, which enabled full catharsis with the audience, which provide real sombreness upon his death toward the end of the production. 

Darci Slater played Natalie Whiteman who is the protagonist of the show, driving forwards the campaign agenda and enthusing the estate characters to engage and fight for their rights and homes. This was played with strength and integrity, using motifs of hand gestures to stabilise the character. There were brilliant moments of softness, which contrasted as insightful to much of the aggression & frustration toward the situation of the narrative.  

Her daughter, Danielle Whiteman, was played by Dilys Chetcuti who provided an earthy characterisation to drive some of the subplot, integrated the actor’s world and the estate narrative. Like her mother, she had great belligerency which was portrayed well.  

In the subplot, Danielle was contrasted well by Natalie Spencer as Ruby who was almost comical in her animated chavvy characterisation, which lifted the weight of the narrative. Her delivery was impeccable, with heightened by truth reactions and expressions, which enabled an empathetic response from the audience. 

Thomas Byers played Jeremy Hardcastle, who is the director of the production. He created a rich detailed character, with lots of charismatic nuance, to give the air of creative authority. For the darker sides of the character, which were only exposed for intimate moments with the production team, a subtle snide of Weinstine were added providing additional layers which generated further duality between the estate characters, reflecting the statements of societal gaps which were thematic throughout the show. 

Finally, the lead actor within the production, Florence, was played by Aoife Cullen, who created a strong role for the part with great differentiation for moments in scene as the character Ingrid. 

Thanks again to Preston College for the opportunity to watch and provide critique upon this fantastic production and I wish all the cast the best sucesses for thier future endeavors. 

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