Transgression – White Bear Theatre, London

Writer: Loretta Monaco

Director: Bryan Oliver

‘Your grizzly transgressions!’ cries a scorned woman as her marriage collapses. Transgressions, hosted at Kennington’s cosy White Bear Theatre, covers a complex quadruple of couples that questions patriarchy, parenthood and pregnancy, but unfortunately fails to find its mark.

It’s the 90s and the concept of the nuclear family is in decline. A psychoanalyst battles with her new reality in that world, as her newly separated husband and her son enter a dangerous competition that threatens to destroy relationships, permanently. Meanwhile, two women contemplate pregnancy, and what it means in this volatile society. While this concept at its core is intriguing, the resulting work from Carnyx Productions is somewhat disappointing.

Abigail Moore as the distressed psychoanalyst gives a standout performance: understated, complex and compelling to watch. Moore’s chemistry with on-stage grownup son, played artfully by Bruce Allinson, has all the facets of a forceful portrayal of the mother-son relationship; it’s an interesting reflection on what it means for parents to relate to the choices of their adult children. However, just when this energy starts to build it is undercut with volatile dialogue that, while occasionally compels, often divulges into something confusing, and contrived in places.

Indeed, the other couplings fail to find chemistry because of off-kilter exchanges, despite solid performances. The dynamics between characters just never seem to find their feet despite 90 minutes of on-stage activity. Jonathan Hansler’s performance as Tom, father and patriarch of the family, has moments of a moving presentation of a man desperate not to be alone. But this feeling is overshadowed by an attempt at quippy one-liners that mostly come across as pretentious, or at worse, bumbling and strange.

Zara Hadeshian as a distressed patient of the psychoanalyst, quarrelling with a desire for children and lost pregnancies, also gives a compelling performance in her own right. But the intermediary monologues feel completely out of place with the rest of the plot. Well-performed and well-written they may be, the link to the rest of the play seems too tenuous to add anything meaningful and just feels out of place. It’s true that Alexandra Etudor’s character Addie has her own quarrels with pregnancy, but the distinction between the two women fails to draw any relation past that fact.

For a play that describes itself as ‘ferociously funny’, it’s disappointing when witty lines don’t find their impact. The same goes for the more provocative lines, which only take the audience out of the world of the play.

There are no doubt compelling moments in Transgression, but despite interesting performances, the working components fail to produce meaning, leaving the audience simply unsatisfied, and not desiring answers to the questions the play proposes.

Runs until 27 January 2024