Spring Reign – The Lowry, Salford

Writer: Rob Johnston

Director: Benedict Power

Reviewer: Andrea Allen

If someone asked you to conjure up a picture of Aleppo, it’s likely you’d picture a smoldering wreck, plunged into desolation, a place more akin to a building site that a bustling metropolis. Summoning an image of the decadent architecture, green spaces, busy marketplaces and clean streets millions once called home has now become a near impossibility. Telling the story of two Westerners, a former English teacher and a stranded War Photographer given refuge by a Syrian couple who still call Aleppo ‘home’, Spring Reign invites you to consider what it means to be ‘home’, and how it would feel if it referred to a place where at any moment the four walls could literally come crashing down.

Rob Johnston’s writing is outstanding. His words transport his audience to a cosy domestic vision of Syria which the cameras never reach. His ability to simultaneously illuminate the horrors of war and the bleak sparseness of a destroyed city demonstrates an understanding of the human condition that, were it present in every leading political figure, would undoubtedly foster a more compassionate and less conflicted world. Photography and video by frontline photographers Musa Chowdhury, Daniel Leal-Olivas and Matthew Norman provides harrowing visual enrichment to the images already conjured so vividly by Johnston’s words. It’s an emotional and visual overload, providing a distressing yet grossly inadequate insight to the horrors faced in Aleppo every day.

Marlon Soloman is tightly controlled yet fiercely patriotic as Salah. The character’s exhaustion is palpable as he fights to save the city and people he loves. His underlying frustration and anger bubbles under the surface creating an image of a man who restrains himself for fear that if he lets go he’ll never come back. Rhian McLean is strong as his fiercely defiant wife Aisha while Garth Williams is a perfect balance of intermittently emotionally detached and emotionally drained War Photographer Mark.

Sophia Hatfield’s Sophie is sadly a weak link. Lurches into affectation abound with frantic hand-gestures, poor timing and over enunciation which disrupt the show and ultimately affect its impact. Similarly, physical theatre providing a segue between scenes is clumsily executed, jarring with a script that is so tightly and thoughtfully composed and weakening the authenticity of this immutably powerful story.

Though Spring Reign has its flaws, these are outweighed by chilling videography and Johnston’s ability to shape an alien, media-filtered country into one so unnervingly relatable you start to feel sick at the thought of a shell dropping on your own front room. A provoking yet valuable reminder that for millions, safety, peace, and happiness are not always synonymous with the word ‘home’.

Reviewed on 10 May 2017 | Image: Contributed