Writer: Tom Ratcliffe
Director: Rikki Beadle-Blair
Sam and his fiancé Noel are wildly in love and blissfully happy, with their whole lives ahead of them. That is until an unexpected accident occurs, leaving Sam completely alone on a lifelong journey to navigate his grief alongside re-building his life back together. Constantly revisiting Noel by reminiscing over their past and imagining his presence, Sam manages to keep a part of Noel alive forever, throughout every stage of his life in this magnificently moving performance.
Tom Ratcliffe should take a bow for this fantastically written, emotively endearing piece of theatre. It captures the essence of a relationship, explores the stages of grief perfectly, and shines an unmistakable light onto the variety of emotions and coping mechanisms that are created in order to continue each day. This is a story about love, loss and learning to live again. But although heart-breaking, and at many points genuinely tear-inducing, it is approached so beautifully and so gently that it doesn’t become a depressing tale of grief and despair. Instead, it is a celebration of what was, a realistic portrayal of reclaiming memories and an acknowledgement to the fragility of life itself.
The chemistry between Ratcliffe (Sam) and Michael Walters (Noel) is extremely believable. They portray every emotion delicately and realistically, absorbing the audience into their relationship highs and lows, deftly showing the subtle changes in their mannerisms and thought processes as time goes on. The final montage that whisks the audience through Sam’s future, arriving at the important milestones still with Noel metaphorically by his side is impeccably done. An exquisitely written final scene is performed to perfection.
When using a non-linear timeline and switching between memories, imagination and present events, there is the opportunity to confuse the audience, but director Rikki Beadle-Blair ensures that each moment is clearly conveyed, utilising subtle lighting changes alongside projected background images to highlight the various changing scenes. The only slight improvement that could be made would be with the character of Christian as there currently isn’t enough differentiation between the portrayal of him and Noel to immediately distinguish who Michael Walters is playing at the time. A stronger accent change is all that is needed to highlight each character shift, which would make the storyline flow just that little bit better.
Wreckage is a poignant, poetic performance. Bring some tissues and be prepared to become an emotional wreck, this show is completely worth the tears it will inevitably draw out of you.
Runs until 22 January 2023
