On a page on her agent’s website, Sophie Melville is described as “highly skilled” in body popping and hip hop dancing and maybe that is why her incredible single-handed performance as Effie in this play is so physical, direct and powerful. This physicality and also the direct fashion in which she confronts the audience makes us firstly feel uncomfortable, and then gradually draws us in to her compelling and touching story.
Gary Owen, the writer, uses the Greek myth about Iphigenia (who must decide whether she is prepared to sacrifice her life to get the winds to blow on the becalmed fleet), to mirror sacrifices Effie makes in her life. Effie describes what happens to her in her messed up life and how through circumstances she has to make sacrifices. She plans hideous revenge on the man who has scorned her, but lets that go. She gives up drugs and alcohol for her baby to be, and even compensation from the NHS that has let her down. She shows us that she and the other people of Splott (a district of Cardiff) are the real victims of the Government cuts. The play moves subtly from the personal to the political bringing the audience up sharp at the end.
A simple set of a few chairs and strip lights in a darkened room (designer: Hayley Grindle) set at different levels to portray the street, and then a night club, next the back of an ambulance, help Effie portray this far from ordinary story of drink drugs and sex and its consequences. The direction (Rachel O’Riordan ) was excellent with changes in pace and mood and you only have to look at the production photographs to see how effective the simple set is, with Effie hanging between two chairs after her miscarriage; an almost unbearable image for the audience.
For a man weaned on Red Ladder and 7:84 in the 70’s this is a far cry from the political theatre of my youth. But our complaint at the time was “is it really theatre?” The personal intensity of this play means it really is theatre. It is a play for the stage, elsewhere described as whirlwind of aggression and destruction. Sophie Melville’s performance is astounding. ★★★★☆ Keith Erskine at Bristol Old Vic Studio 31st March 2016
