Writer: Nicki Jackowska
Director: Maria Pattinson
Reviewer: Lela Tredwell
WORK IN PROGRESS: SCRIPT IN HAND PERFORMANCE : Part of the Herstories Festival
An ambitious play, which poses many beastly questions, Faultline leads us through a maze of strong performances. Richly seeped in symbolism, and with a strong passion driving the piece forward, an audience can expect to fall deep into the dark underbelly of the labyrinth while scanning desperately for a guiding light.
The play opens on a domestic scene, with a delightful rhythm involving a barometer and some rib knitting instructions. Hester (Olivia Steele), raised in a dysfunctional household rife with abuse, cowers by her grandmother as slinging matches rumble on between her uncompromising parents. With no love seemingly lost between them, or anyone for that matter, the first half is packed with loud disagreements, and peppered with brief moments of humour. The vibe is threatening as proceedings feel primed to reach boiling point.
Hester (Steele) grows up in leaps to have her own disputes with both her parents, but by the time she has found her voice to confront these authority figures, her mother (Emma Kilbey) is unresponsive in a care home, and her father (Dominic Hart) is dead. Hester doesn’t let that stop her though and the first half ends as Hester fights with her father posthumously over political differences and goads him with cryptic insinuations of sexual impropriety, something Hester also blames on her mother for being an unsatisfactory sexual partner for her father.
There’s a murkiness to the first half that suggests we haven’t had the light shone on all the pieces yet but any hope that the second half might clear things up is dashed when Hester (Steele) appears in an unfamiliar space and demolishes an innocently unsuspecting loaf of bread. An unravelling takes place with yarn, reminiscent of her grandmother’s knitting. Hester trails ribbon around the crumb strewn stage as she converses with a shadowy figure. The man (Luke O’Dell), with pencils behind each ear, breaths more and more heavily as he morphs into the minotaur.
The huffing of this bull-like figure is very unnerving but so too is the distress caused by trying to cling onto the narrative as their conversation bucks and kicks like a bareback bronco. Hester’s (Steele) distraught pleas for clarity on what is going on are only echoed by our own as the Minotaur (O’Dell), come possible therapist, provides no answers to her enquiries.
Why are there only left shoes in this place? Why are there so many empty chairs? And is anyone going to pick up all that bread?
The cast shine as they passionately bring this tale to life. Olivia Steele gives a stand out performance as Hester, while Victoria Gould as her grandmother is a joy to behold. Dominic Hart as Hester’s father gives a very affecting performance and Emma Kilbey manages to expertly create both humour and revulsion towards her portrayal of Hester’s mother. The Minotaur is also brilliantly realised by Luke O’Dell.
For us mere mortals, we could use some more clues to understand the many messages that undoubtedly lie behind this maze of a narrative. Later scenes between Hester (Steele) and her grandmother (Gould) suggest inherited trauma is at the heart of the labyrinth but it is hard to get a handle on all the loose threads and some staging puts the actors’ backs to the audience hindering further visual cues in an already cryptic play. The inclusion of more quieter, reflective moments, might help to explain what is happening to these characters and give the audience a chance to take a breath.
Faultline is a richly atmospheric play which clearly has much to say. By providing more assistance in guiding us through the labyrinth, the piece can reach higher towards its potential and help to slay the beast of the unsaid which surrounds abuse. It is undoubtedly an important play which deserves to be fully understood.
Reviewed on 27th March 2026
