Things I Know To Be True

Not often do I come out of a show feeling an emotional wreck having just witnessed a standing ovation, but Andrew Bovell’s script, is a mesmerising rollercoaster that takes no prisoners and in the hands of a top flight society, like Leighton Buzzard Drama Group, with two new directors in Sophie Dean and Lois Wright bringing their own take to the party we really were watching something a bit special from an equally top flight cast.

Set in an undisclosed town somewhere in the UK, It tells the story of the Price family, husband and wife Bob and Fran who have four young adult children all trying to make their way in the world trying to discover themselves, but still under the influence of their well-meaning but overbearing mother, who always knows best and who is the beating heart of this close knit family and to whom they all return when things get tough and out of hand. Set in the neat and tidy garden tended by their kindly father Bob, a retired assembly line worker, each in turn tells the story of their troubles with their relationships, their sexuality and their own honesty. However, spoiler alert, this is far from a happy romantic comedy with a neat happy ending, but it certainly has a powerfully memorable one.

The set by Colin Delamore was the Price’s very neat and tidy garden with a garden shed stage right, a raised trellis pagoda with a bistro style table and chairs set stage left, trimmed with boxes of well-tended roses. On the door of the garden shed a small notice read, ‘It’s all in here somewhere.’  And sticking out above and behind the shed was the wayward tree shedding its leaves, whilst everything else is pruned to perfection including the Ivy growing on the shed. As each child having told their story leaves the stage they poignantly take with them a piece of the trellis from the pagoda. In the script or a touch added by the directors, it certainly made a point.

Lighting by Dave Miles gave us the warm sunny garden and in the last scene by switching to blue UV style perfectly changed the atmosphere for the deeply tragic poignant ending. And sound by Rob Taylor in this un-mic’d production was crystal, as per usual.

Some very neat touches with costumes by Sheena Ward and Martine Tournay and props by Sue Calvert such as the actors standing up against a blanket with two pillows held by the other actors not in the scene to signify a bedroom scene, a wedding dress just held against the actor to signify a marriage, and the whole cast changing into black in front of us for the final scene.  Again, incredibly poignant.

Mark Loughran as the father Bob Price was, you thought, the laid-back member of the family, whilst his wife ran the show, but Bob turns out to have a very high moral compass and the anger at his son Ben’s dishonest behaviour put her in her place with a superbly judged performance. He also provided the lump in the throat memorable moment of the whole show, when he turns his back on the audience to look at his garden and puts out his open hand to reach for his missing wife’s. If that didn’t get your emotions, nothing will!

Good to see Jo Taylor back on the Library Theatre stage, bringing her usual class performance to the party as the dominating, never wrong but well-meaning mother, Fran the glue that holds everything together. A superbly measured performance.

Where LBDG recruit them from would be the envy of many a society, but yet again along comes another top-flight actress, Lauren Raisbeck as youngest daughter, Rosie Price in her first show for the group. In at the deep end would be a serious understatement, as the first ten minutes of the show is just her monologue of emotions as she describes and re-enacts her continental trip involving a failed love affair in Berlin. She certainly knows how to draw an audience in, as we were captivated by her performance from moment one.

In just her second production with LBDG, Sarah Smerald delivered another outstanding performance as eldest daughter Pip, a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage who travels to Canada seeking love through an affair with a married man, a detail her mother has to prise out of her.

Louis Fordham now an old hand in LBDG with his fifth production as Mark who questioning his own sexuality and transposes into Mia, just nailed the part perfectly. The scene where he tries to explain to his parents and especially his father, who in his words, ‘Puts his foot in it,’ was particularly memorable.

Matty Davies, yet another experienced newbie to LBDG completed the cast as Ben a lost soul out of his depth, trying to keep up with the rich kids whose company he seeks to impress, but which only drives him to stealing from his employers. Again, a faultless performance capturing the inevitable hopelessness and downward spiral of the character perfectly.

This was a powerful piece of drama, which is very had to watch and puts its audience through the ringer, but you simply couldn’t take your eyes off it however uncomfortable it became. And it is certainly clever, as the only characters we see are the six members of the family, all in various emotional states from their diverse soirees in the outside world. Would I say I enjoyed it? The jury is very much still out on that, but by goodness Directors Sophie Dean and Lois Wright certain gave us an exceptionally high-quality production that will live long in the memory and fully justified the standing ovation it received.

And thank you to LBDG Chair, Caroline Page for the usual gold standard hospitality.

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