If you were wondering whether or not to see Tusk Tusk at The Alma but were hesitant about doing so because it is about children, be reassured. Yes, it features very young actors in all of its main roles, but it is very far from being a ‘children’s play’. Polly Stenham has written an unflinching examination of middle-class domestic dysfunction and parental neglect. She lays bare the emotional chaos that can churn away hidden in leafy suburbia, and no Mary Poppins comes to rescue these children. Tusk Tusk is a play that demands a great deal of its youthful cast, but fortunately Quirky Bird Theatre’s director Anna Friend has been rewarded with excellent performances all round. They most certainly deserve a bigger audience than they had last night.
We see 15-year-old Elliot, 14-year-old Maggie, and their seven-year-old brother Finn alone in the family home. It becomes clear that their mother is mysteriously absent. A father for whom they hold no affectionate memories is dead. They are confident, articulate kids and at first they seem well able to look after themselves. But soon we see that they are caught in a dilemma. If their mother doesn’t return they will eventually have to call for help, and that would mean that they’d be taken into care. They bravely try to sustain a kind of normality, but cracks begin to show. Elliot pops out to buy takeaways and bring back a girlfriend, Cassie. She quickly becomes aware that she has been brought into an alien world of vicious rivalries, strange ties of affection and dark secrets. Maggie sneers at Elliot for being an ‘oily little love-monkey’ and ‘a spineless panting bag of hormones’, but then she quickly changes tack and becomes far more tender and caring. It is clear that theirs is a decidedly stormy love-hate relationship. When Cassie expresses surprise at the way they treat each other Elliot snaps, ‘You don’t have a brother and sister.’
Joshua Rogers portrays Elliot as a tormented control-freak, clinging on to his role as older brother, the man of the family, but gradually losing his grip on reality. There is a desperate romanticism in his belief that they can make it alone. It is a powerful performance, matched by that of Rosie Walker as the more pragmatic, grounded Maggie. Kayleigh Gazzard, as Cassie, shows the bewilderment of a kid from a housing estate who thought that everything was rosy on the other side of town.
The tension rises, and in an exceptionally well-choreographed and genuinely frightening scene there is an accident and an injury. In the mayhem that ensues Yazmin Priestner-Burton is wonderfully convincing as little Finn, veering from shrieking terror one moment to dozing off under a blanket the next.
When adults finally arrive on the scene we see that their world is just as irrational and chaotic as that of the children. Bridget Walker is excellent as the family friend who thinks that nothing can be so traumatic that it can’t be solved by going shopping, and Alex Pitcher as her husband conveys very clearly a man trapped just as much as the children. Are they rescued? I strongly recommend that you see one of the remaining two performances to find out: April 1st 7.30 and April 2nd 2.30. ★★★★☆ Mike Whitton 31st March 2016
