Seven actors in seven different locations scattered across the country, perform a play that places all seven characters on the same beach of a small coastal town at the same time.  It shouldn’t work, but thanks to the technical skills of what in normal circumstances would be called the backstage team, somehow it all comes together.  Presented almost entirely in monochrome, and with much use of split screen, this Bristol Old Vic Theatre School production of 62 Sperm Whales is a very moving story of loss, grief, and reconciliation. It’s a ghost story, too.

Each actor is seen against a neutral background, leaving it largely to our imaginations to sketch in details of time and place, though brief filmed inserts and still photographs occasionally feature. We learn that the setting is a small town whose only notable features are a greasy chip shop and a beach. The first characters we meet on that beach are Eva, a young woman, and Marie, who is older and who smokes constantly. Eva has come to try to be of aid to a number of sperm whales that have become stranded, while Marie is there because she ritually visits that spot, every day. It is a sad fact that whales occasionally beach themselves; an act that almost invariably leads to their death.  If there is a motive behind this self-destructive behaviour, it has yet to be discovered.  Whales are intelligent, and, as Eva says, ‘They must know it’s not right to be here’. Marie responds with, ‘I don’t know what a whale knows.’ We gather that Eva and Marie have not spoken for some time, and their meeting is difficult for both of them.

Writer Skot Wilson draws clever parallels between the inexplicable nature of a whale’s motivations and those kinds of apparently senseless human behaviours that lead us to despairingly ask ‘Why?’.  We discover that a year ago Marie experienced the loss of her son Joe. This was a profoundly tragic event that appeared to make no sense.  In her grief she has become frozen in time, endlessly repeating the same behaviours. Eva was Joe’s girlfriend, but she has made some attempt to move on in her life, and she has a new boyfriend, Isaac.  Her attempt to move on has been only partially successful: ‘Doing the actions of moving on, thinking the feelings might catch up.’ But that day on the beach, amongst the stranded whales, Marie and Eva have an experience that proves transformative, and which gives this play a deeply affecting, life-affirming conclusion.

The stranded whales may have metaphorical purpose, but they are also very substantial, and their solid reality is emphasised by the character Ash, a ploddingly rule-bound official tasked with dissecting their great carcasses for analysis. Ashley Woodhouse makes this chainsaw-wielding jobsworth very likeable, revealing that Ash has a deeper understanding of human nature than his pedantic manner would at first suggest.

Sarah McCormack is excellent as Eva, all too aware that she does not have the same kind of relationship with Isaac that she once had with Joe, and also aware that there is unfinished business between her and Marie. As Isaac, Al Maxwell is amusingly roguish, a drug-dealing Jack-the-lad who cannot in any way match up to Joe, but who has a no-nonsense grip on the grim realities of life in this dead-end town. But 62 Sperm Whales is a play where grim reality bumps up against supernatural events, apparently triggered by the presence of the dying whales.  Therefore, we are able to meet Joe, Marie’s dead son. He is a lad who had led a happy life full of intense experiences, yet who willingly embraced his own death.  Jake Simmance portrays this paradoxical character with great charm.  His meeting with his mother is beautifully played by both actors in a scene full of anger, wry humour, and pathos. That mother, Marie, is played superbly by Charlotte East.  Despite being decidedly young for this role, she gives a very moving portrayal of a woman struggling to cope with unanswered questions that will not go away. Her performance is the most memorable feature of this impressive production.

The phrase, ‘with much use of split screen’ does not do justice to the formidable level of digital wizardry that has made this show possible.  The logistical challenge must have seemed formidable. As Director, Evan Lordan has successfully captured this play’s intriguing mix of emotions and ideas, and his technical support team, including Digital Coordinator Dave Taylor, have ensured that its scattered component parts have come together to make 62 Sperm Whales a thoroughly engaging experience. Catch it on YouTube.    ★★★★☆     Mike Whitton  21^st June 2020

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