3 – 7 September

Scaffolding comes ready assembled at the Bristol Old Vic following development by Devon-based company Documental Productions and a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe.

In this one hander, Suzanna Hamilton portrays Sheridan, the mother of Joelle, her grown-up daughter with profound disabilities, and we find her atop a gantry on scaffolding erected around the recently renovated church steeple in Sheridan’s Devonshire village. She is having a bit of a moment and seeks a more two-way relationship with God.

Her problems are compounded by Adult Social Services’ inability to offer the required support, and their recent implied criticism of her parenting. We learn she has recently become a single parent following the loss of her husband, Emile, and has developed a deep infatuation with the fate of the church. Ecclesiastical authorities have hinted it may be closed and sold off to developers.

Writer Lucy Bell has created a peculiarly claustrophobic piece of theatre which feels at odds with Sheridan being perched at the top of the building for most of the play. A variety of clouds and sunrises projected behind her suggest something more expansive. However, instead of allowing her thoughts to soar, they are always drawn back to earth and her desperate struggle to come to terms with her lot. She talks to God, and asks rhetorical questions seeking an answer to her problems. These are partly answered at the end with some audience participation. More of that later.

Although the stuttering delivery style hints at a desperation to convey the grief and hopelessness that Sheridan experiences, there is a curious lack of passion. Sheridan has a soft spot for the vicar, is pained that Emile is no longer there, and worries intensely about what Joelle actually feels about her, but none of this comes across forcefully enough. There is much explaining about what Sheridan’s predicament comprises, but instead of fury, this is replaced by flippancy. The play is darkly humorous, rather than funny, and the comedy blunts instead of burns. Some of the more farcical episodes later on in the plot detract from plausibility.

The staging, consisting of a static scaffold platform, is partially to blame. More variety in the way it is deployed could have helped. No one else sees her up there and this becomes too limiting an artifice which deadens the pace.

The final denouement involves the audience being invited to reach under their seats to find a card instructing us not to open it until the end of the show. Individuals were asked to read out the very numerous responses from God, which became a drawn out process. Like the scaffolding around real buildings, Scaffolding is a little rickety at times, and although it served some purpose, the time to take it down took much longer than we would have liked.

★★★☆☆  Bryan J Mason, 4 September 2024