Writer: Harry Mould
Director: Ben Occhipinti
In the current chilly climate for arts funding, it’s good to see a piece of new theatre taking root, and that it’s well supported. This performance of a Pitlochry Festival Theatre production, on the thrust stage of Traverse 2, was a sell-out.
The play features two women call handlers in a shabby Samaritans office, in an unspecified Scottish town, in an equally vague moment after Thatcher came to power. Karen (Charlotte Grayson) is a feminist mixed-race teenager from London, Anne (Fiona Bruce) a laid-back white Scot in advanced middle age. So far, so schematic.
Their conflict centres on the heavy breathers who use the Samaritans as a sex line, before such things exist. These callers identify themselves by asking for ‘Brenda’, the purely notional volunteer who gives the show its title. It’s a role that Anne is content to play.
Karen, who is on her first night shift, dismisses the idea of such callers as perverts who ought not to be indulged; Anne views some of them – described in the training manual as ‘befriendable Type C’ – as harmless, lonely men.
This is not a bad premise for a drama, and it’s based on real events, but the words assigned to each character find it hard to take flight from the page. What might have been an intriguing, gently humorous exchange of views becomes the rehearsal of a dry debate.
The issues raised have resonance for today’s audience, but Karen and Anne’s personalities are not rounded or flexible enough that that they can surprise us. With perspectives so rigidly predictable, the discussion soon becomes repetitive. There needed to be some nuance in their attitudes, with genuine potential for each to affect the other’s stance.
Without this, the process of their bonding is unconvincing, even corny at times, as they discuss their lives, have endless cups of tea and indulge in a dance sequence. It’s all a bit thin, under-developed. Just when the story is belatedly starting to get somewhere, there’s an unnecessary fifteen-minute interval in the 85-minute piece, which kills the much-needed momentum.
The script and performances almost succeed – they’re coherent and watchable respectively – but the dramatic peaks lack impact. Karen and Anne are taken aback by misunderstandings that are glaringly obvious to the audience; they indulge in over-the-top behaviour that’s not convincingly motivated. But this is the writer’s debut and this experience is bound to shape their future work positively.
More on the plus side: the sound design that allows us to listen in to phone calls works very well; the set is well-conceived and realised. The story provides some insights into the workings of a cherished charity, back in the day. It takes a very different slant from that in Monica Dickens’ 1970 novel The Listeners. Both have their value. Due to the themes explored, the play is advertised as suitable for people aged 14 and above.
Runs until 16 November 2024 | Image: Contributed
The Reviews Hub Score
Watchable but unconvincing
