Scorched – Riverside Studios, London

Writer: Tallulah Bond

Director: Imogen Elliott

Would you like your potatoes mashed, fried, or roasted? That is the framing question of Scorched, a bizarre and captivating depiction of a couple’s spiralling relationship as the pair attempts normalcy in the backdrop of disaster.

Lena (Tallulah Bond) and Donnell (Douglas Clarke-Wood) live on a boat. They tease and antagonise each other as they sit out in the sun on deck chairs, cook and eat a simple diet of potatoes, and only potatoes. That is until an ominous alarm rings and the couple scampers inside evading an unnamed threat. Donnel, resident tortured artist, regularly runs off to continue painting his artistic mural masterpiece. But after showing Lena his new portrait, which she swiftly falls in love with, their playful relationship descends into belligerent cruelty filled with venomous exchanges.

Excellent performances from Bond and Clarke-Wood establish the fascinating concept, and between them, they effortlessly depict a hugely dysfunctional relationship filled with resentment, self-sabotage, and intensity with genuine moments of warmth too. The writing from Bond sees the dialogue compellingly twist and backflip, eliciting delightful confusion and fascination. Direction from Imogen Elliott is nothing but an asset to this brilliantly intimate depiction, exposing the bones of humanity and how it would respond in such extreme and, yet mundane, circumstances.

The subtlety of the apocalyptic context must be commended; all too often these types of plays stray into the ridiculous. whereas Scorched stays utterly believable. However, the production would benefit from establishing context slightly earlier to allow the audience to sink into Lena and Donnell’s variable relationship without question. The production is motivated by a desire to be ‘about climate change’ but ‘nothing to do with climate change’, and this strange aim is achieved with compelling results.

Predominantly, Scorched is an excellent depiction of humanity’s capacity for cruelty, but also for love.

Reviewed on 22 July 2022