DramaNorth East & YorkshireReview

The Bounds – Live Theatre, Newcastle

Reviewer: Jonathan Cash

Writer: Stewart Pringle

Director: Jack McNamara

The setting is a patch of muddy hillside between Allendale and Catton in Northumberland. It is 1553. A man in well-worn peasant garb enters singing a gentle folk song about football in a pleasing baritone. The song becomes more rumbustious, building to the kind of climax one would expect from a football song. The man is Percy, a farmer and he is taking part in the annual Whitsun football match between the two villages. That is to say, he and Rowan, the young peasant woman who joins him, are playing backward rear defence, so far out of the centre of the huge playing area that they can’t even see the action.

Rowan delivers a foul-mouthed rant about the fact that their team always loses, whilst Percy still has a young man’s optimism about the result. Past failures are catalogued, and the team’s star players discussed and rated. There is a deal of very funny banter, during which we learn a lot about the community and the times as well as the two characters.

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They are joined by an opulently dressed, aristocratic young man, Samuel, the son of a local squire, who says he has just come down from Oxford. Percy is openly hostile and tries to get rid of him but he stays, expressing interest in the game, taking Percy’s insults and abuse in good part. Nothing is seen or heard of the game. There are echoes of Samuel Becket in the futility of their waiting and the fact that none of the football match is seen at any point.

This is, as my football enthusiast companion said to me, a play of two halves. This first part is largely, though not entirely humorous. The second half is considerably darker, starting with Rowan’s harrowing account of the recent birth of a two-headed sheep, or possibly a demon and an ill omen for the outcome of the match. Percy and Samuel each go away at times to see what is happening elsewhere and come back with no real information.

We learn that Rowan has been tortured with the scold’s bridle, a hideous instrument that is placed over the head and burnt to her skin, with a metal plate that depresses the tongue, for her outspoken rejection of suitors. She has not forgiven Percy for doing nothing to prevent it. He harbours guilt but protests his powerlessness to intervene.

When Percy is alone a young boy arrives. He is beating the bounds because the king has decreed the borders between towns are to be redrawn, moving Percy’s property from Allendale to his hated neighbouring town. He is determined not to accept this assault on his identity but is powerless.

On hearing of this, Samuel reveals his true identity and his reason for staying and things become much darker. Without revealing the outcome, the inexplicable appearance of a trapdoor causes some confusion in the audience’s mind. Later, Percy is subject to some visons that seem to foretell the future, from an impending war right to the modern day. The playwright seems to be wanting to put in context the miserable lot of the ordinary man through history, forever sacrificed to the whims of the rich. This is an ambitious concept but does not feel entirely successful, particularly a section involving modern weaponry.

That reservation aside, the piece is entertaining, absorbing and thought-provoking. Written by Stewart Pringle, who is also a dramaturg for the National Theatre, it captures brilliantly the authentic tone and energy of Northumbrian speech, as well as the loftier tones of Samuel, and delivers three-dimensional, relatable characters. Direction by Jack McNamara is unobtrusively effective, maintaining a good pace, but with enough time to reflect on the dialogue. Drummond Orr’s lighting design, assisted by Matthew Tuckey’s evocative sound design effectively conjures early morning passing through to night on a Northumbrian hillside.

The performances of all the actors are faultless. Ryan Nolan’s Percy is all prickly bravado, underpinned by a vulnerability and an unacknowledged sadness. Lauren Waine’s Rowan is boisterous, crude and knowing, with an edge of wisdom and real warmth. Saroosh Lavasani’s Samuel is suitably gentle, intelligent and refined. The young boy played by James Green, gives an impressive performance; clear, articulate and confident.

Runs until 8 June 2024

The Reviews Hub Score

Absorbing historical drama

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The Reviews Hub - Yorkshire & North East

The Yorkshire & North East team is under the editorship of Jacob Bush. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.

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