REVIEW

Things I Know To Be True

Mercury Theatre, Colchester.

Until Tomorrow. 01206 573948

“I know that people aren’t perfect. Even the people you love. Especially the people you love.”

That’s at the heart of Andrew Bovell’s play, brought to the stage by the amazing Frantic Assembly. Renowned for their physical theatre and use of the body, the company present what seems like, initially at first, just another family drama. But as the characters talk directly to us, we discover the tensions that exist within this family, and how the attitudes and rules of parents can badly affect their children.

The Price family are seemingly close knit. We are introduced to them via Rosie, the youngest, having her heart broken in Berlin then returning to the family home. From this restrained homecoming, the routines and stresses within the family are firmly established. Mum, (Cate Hamer), is a lioness prepared to protect her family, but her blindness to their true selves, flaws and opportunities, drive them away. The rest of the ensemble are terrific, Pip, (Seline Hizli), who falls in love with another man that isn’t her husband, Ben, revealed as a drug user and fraudster is played with manic energy by Arthur Wilson, and Kirsty Oswald throughout the play exudes the eternal optimism of Rosie. Best of all is a moving performance by Matthew Barker as Mark, who comes out to his parents as transgender and begins his transition alone in a bedsit. As the Dad, John McArdle, is brilliant as the stable, quiet man, who wants to hold his family together, but lacks the words to hold his children near.

What raises this production into the levels of sublime are the terrific acting and the outstanding movement. Scene changes are fascinating, bodies twist and age, and the garden grows and develops as the years pass.

Paul T. Davies