How My Light Is Spent is a poetic, optimistic and magical story, set in circumstances that are all too grimly real. It tells the story of a man in his thirties, Jimmy, who has lost his job in Newport and who has very little prospect of finding a new one.  He begins a long-distance relationship with Kitty, the girl on the other end of an adult chat-line. Then he starts to disappear, literally. Creeping invisibility isn’t perhaps the subtlest metaphor for what happens to those trapped in a world of zero-hours contracts and sudden unemployment, but writer Alan Harris has a deft way of juxtaposing nuts-and-bolts reality with a kind of lyrical surrealism that is strangely appealing.

 Jonathan Oldfield and Eva O’Hara bring oodles of charm – and convincing South Wales accents – to their portrayals of Jimmy and Kitty, their physical separation emphasised by the use of hand-held mikes. Both actors share narration duties, too, skilfully switching from one role to the other. Initially, we learn Jimmy’s backstory. He once worked for Panasonic, but when they shut down their Newport plant, he took a job at a drive-in doughnut store. But now ‘Newport Nuts’ have gone automated, so that job has disappeared too – ‘I’ve been replaced by a coin bin’. He hasn’t seen his daughter in four years, and he’s back living with his mum. While she is off at her Salvation Army meetings, he makes those calls to the chat-line. So far, so bleak. Then his hands vanish, and he fears he is going to disappear altogether. Can Kitty rescue him?

This production of How My Light Is Spent is at its best when telling of the tentative, early stages of Jimmy and Kitty’s odd romance. The initial set-up might be thought quite sordid, but Jonathan Oldfield and Eva O’Hara bring great humour and humanity to the chat-line scenes. We learn that Kitty is a would-be psychology student, but it’s going to take her years to save up the money for the course. She’s as lonely as Jimmy, and she welcomes the companionship offered by his post-climactic conversations. The story broadens out, and we meet other characters, including Jimmy’s estranged daughter and Kitty’s eccentric landlord. These characters are quite vividly sketched in, but some of the initial impetus and energy is lost as matters become more complex and diffuse.  I found myself wanting to return to Jimmy and Kitty alone, for their story is the beating heart of this play.

How My Light Is Spent is a study of the harsh realities faced by those struggling to survive in an unforgiving, ungenerous capitalist economy.  At one point the question, ‘It’s about money, isn’t it?’ gets the response, ‘Isn’t everything?’  But we are not left with that coldly materialistic thought. Harsh circumstances are blown away by magical realism, as Jimmy and Kitty dance away in triumphant, transcendent union. Director Nikhil Vyas has aimed ‘to create a show that takes the audience on an imaginative journey which celebrates the collective, unifying power of live storytelling’. Aided by two very skilled actors, he has succeeded in his aim.

How My Light Is Spent is the fourth and final play of this year’s Directors’ Cuts season, which has again showcased the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School’s wealth of young talent.  Bravo!  ★★★☆☆   Mike Whitton   22^nd May 2019