This year marks the production of Theatre West’s 100th new play. They should be immensely proud of their achievement. Having moved out of the Alma Tavern they are presenting each of the five plays of their ‘One Day’ season in a different venue. This week sees them at The Brewery. Set in Bulgaria, Coastal Defences presents us with a series of domestic crises seen in the context of the anti-government protests that brought tension to the streets of Sofia last year. The opening scene is a noisy, amusing kaleidoscope of all the familiar clichés of Bulgaria as a holiday destination: folk-dancing, colourful peasant costumes, roses strewn on the ground, and the patronising tones of a cosy old Pathé News travelogue, telling us that Bulgaria is like Russia, only different. An English tourist downs far too many glasses of rakia, the voiceover fades, and in a series of short scenes we meet two families struggling to cope with the harsher realities of life in South-Eastern Europe. Boyko is a museum security guard who dreams of owning a house and who may be willing to do the government’s dirty work to get it. Tsveta plans to turn her run-down hotel on the coast into a far more glitzy attraction, but there are awkward questions for her brother about where the money for this transformation might be coming from. Meanwhile, Paul flies in to Sofia from England to meet his Bulgarian Facebook friend on Lover’s Bridge….

All the action takes place in front of a striking backdrop: a red brick wall, emblazoned with the unmistakable Coca-Cola logo in Cyrillic script. There are just three actors, each of them playing a number of roles and quickly changing from one costume to another at the side of the stage. Jill Rutland is particularly affecting as the Bulgarian woman who is not quite sure what kind of relationship she wants with her Facebook friend, and Nic McQuillian is excellent as the young, idealistic visitor from England who finds himself somewhat out of his depth. Chris Bianchi plays Boyko as a man well-versed in the deep-rooted corruption that has blighted his country, and he provides the comic highlight of the evening as a Bristolian property developer hopelessly entangled in East European bureaucracy.

Though he gives us a warts and all portrait of Bulgaria, writer Tom Phillips has a deep affection for the country. He was inspired to write Coastal Defences partly because he was less than thrilled by the BBC 3 series Booze, Bar Crawls and Bulgaria. He has perhaps tried to explore too many themes for a play of an hour’s duration, and the complex, interweaving stories he tells lack a central point of focus, but I found much to admire and enjoy in the play’s wide-ranging ambition, in the cleverly choreographed direction from Nik Partidge, and in the uniformly excellent performances from the cast.

Each of the five plays in the ‘One Day’ season is paired with a much shorter work. Coastal Defences is preceded by Canopy of Stars, a ten-minute monologue by Miriam Battye which portrays one young woman’s intensely personal feelings of loss set against the blank immensity of the Universe. Are we merely tiny specks rightly ignored by the trillions of distant stars, or does our capacity for love endow us with some measure of significance? It’s an old question, but one that is addressed in a fresh and engaging way. Conveying both wide-eyed curiosity and emotional vulnerability, Rebecca Newman gives a very touching performance. ★★★★☆  Mike Whitton      09/10/14