Review: LOCAL, Finborough Theatre

What does home mean to you? Is it the place, the people, the bricks and mortar? Liz Richardson's autobiographical one-woman show is a gentle look at what the concept of home means to your identity and how the environment of your childhood can influence your later life.

As a teenager, Liz was desperate to get out of the West Cumbrian town where she grew up. Now as a parent to a 12 year-old daughter of her own, her parents are selling her childhood home. She travels north to sort out boxes, looking back at her childhood and sense of place with a new perspective. With time passing, did she ever belong?

Richardson's story is rooted in the quotidian domestic sphere. There's reading of the teenage diary, the stories about an accident with plastic chicken fillets stuffed down her bra at a party, the reenactment of a dance routine devised with her friends. Richardson is a likable character and performer, making eye contact with much of the audience as she looks for agreement and encouragement.

Lizzy Leech's set design is the inevitable slightly chaotic teenage bedroom, with lovely details like a pile of old National Geographic magazines, a fibre-optic lamp glowing in the corner, and a patchwork of wall-hangings and rugs on the floor. It feels cozy, familiar and warm, which is a theme running throughout the play.

The issues with the show are action and pace. Richardson spends much of the first section of the show walking slowly back and forth across the tiny space of the Finborough. Her descriptions of her daughter's freckles, the internal debates she has with telling people the exact location of where she is from, and her tendency to embellish stories are performed in an engaging manner, but are rather pedestrian in content and feels like a talk or lecture, rather than part of a play. The second part improves on this, cleverly using TripleDotMakers videos projected onto the backdrop, showing the view from a moving train window, the local town's high street, and the rural landscape to establish a sense of place.

Liz meets up with old school acquaintances, as though trying to find her part of somewhere or something. She delves into her teenage experiences through her diaries and conversations as she tries to explore the question of — where do you belong? She meditates on the sense of safety in her parents' home and how origins can validate a person. These are intriguing and universal questions, but the actions meanders and you never feel Richardson gets quite deep enough to provide sufficient intrigue to really engage with these issues. It's all a bit safe. The dramatic climax of the show is welcome and works well, but only because the run-up has been so long. The ending, though heartfelt, verges heavily towards the sentimental.

Richardson is an engaging performer and it is clear that this is a very personal show. For many, it will provoke thoughtful questions about family, home, and what creates a sense of belonging, but others may want a production with more teeth.

Reader Reviews

To post a comment, you must register and login.

Need more UK / West End Theatre News in your life?
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...