Taken at face value, the premise of this play is a bit of a hard sell. Francis, an off duty policeman, flings his phone on the ground, crushes it beneath his heel, and then steps to the edge of a cliff, readying himself to jump. As he stands on the verge, Fifi appears, a strange apparition of a woman in oversized clothes, carrying a cat box and an enormous shopping bag. She convinces him to take a step away and to have a cup of tea and a talk with her.

However, these two characters, played by Gabriel Vick and Susan Aderin, have an unexpected chemistry. Fifi overwhelms Francis with her positivity and joy, even in the face of her homelessness, and his despair and anger. She convinces Francis to spend some time with her, even as the waves crash and rain falls around them.

There is a lot of light and darkness in this play – both literally and metaphorically. The lighting changes when the narrative flashes back to Francis’s childhood (when Fifi becomes his mum Fiona), or when we see Fifi interact with her son Michael (played by Francis). From the stormy night, we’re transported to a London flat, or a Boston suburb, to understand more about the circumstances which brought these two individuals to this place. This technique is clever, although sometimes a little too subtle – this was a subtitled performance, and I was glad of it a couple of times to help me situate the action.

This is a play about mental health and depression; it’s about dysfunctional families, and death, and love. Philip Osment has written a short drama that encapsulates how difficult it can sometimes be just to exist, and how sometimes all it takes is offering someone a little hope. The North Wall is excellent at finding productions that speak to the important questions, and this doesn’t disappoint.   ★★★★☆    @BookingAround    14^th February 2020