REVIEW: RIGGED, Unicorn Theatre, October 13 2009

Asmeed Sohoye's Rigged examines the impact of family breakdown in post-industrial Britain. And if that sounds rather worthy, rather didactic, a kitchen sink drama that really throws the kitchen sink at its audience, then it's because Sohoye does rather labour the point that Elvis Presley made rather more succinctly a couple of generations back, as he power-balladed his way through In The Ghetto.  

In the beautifully appointed Unicorn Theatre (thank you Corporate Social Responsibility Committees), we are introduced to Nathan, 16, beset by anger management issues; Sarah, 16, junior "Tart-with-a Heart"; Kathy, 32, going on 64; and Gary 40-something going nowhere. These rather stock characters are fleshed out with backstories that emphasise how splitting nuclear families can have an explosive effect on an individual's life chances. At times, there's just a little too much preachiness and I can imagine some single parents wanting to tell their own good news stories to counter-balance the playwright's relentlessly negative view of anything short of Mum and Dad and Kids at Home sitting down for a good old Sunday lunch. The play's message won't displease the Daily Mail - which doesn't make it wrong, just a little short on the nuances of life in 2009's Britain.

Given a character wrestling with child-like anger as it butts up against new found adult responsibilities, Kyle Summercorn gives a rather two-speed performance as Nathan - the yob alternating with the proto-New Man. As his girlfriend Sarah, Niamh Webb best captures the dilemma in which the characters' rigged lives trap them: should she pursue her dream of a proper education or dedicate her life to her as yet unborn child? Daisy Whyte and Paul Clerkin play Nathan's mother and adoptive father as prematurely middle-aged everywoman and everyman, worn out by dead-end jobs and determined, in their own ways, to avoid Nathan and Sarah repeating their own threadbare lives a generation on. There's some pithy criticism of educational bureaucracy's inability to understand the needs of those who need education most and an excellent scene in which Gary is betting against wonderhorse Sea the Stars, undermining his statement that his gambling is somehow more scientific than Nathan's arcade habit. However, much of the rest of the play's drama will be familiar to viewers of Eastenders, as will the acting style of conveying heightened emotion through shouting.

Theatre Centre does an excellent job in supporting new writing and has some very impressive back-up material on its website, but this production feels a little lost in a big theatrical space. It will do a fine job in schools as a Year 11 production warning of the folly of veering away from family life, but you might want to dig out that Elvis CD if all you want is the message.

Rigged is at The Unicorn Theatre, London until 17 October and then at The Junction, Cambridge on 12 November and Rich Mix, London on 14 November.