EDINBURGH 2023: Review: BREAKING THE CASTLE, Assembly Rooms

David is about to take the stage. He says he’s nervous, but the theatre is the place where everything makes sense. The lights on his face, the connection with the audience, it all makes his life worth living. Australian actor and writer Peter Cook contrasts this joyous feeling with a past of addiction and compulsion. It’s an intense performance about recovery and deciding to live. He takes us back to a time spent doing coke and heating up meth while struggling to book jobs that get him nowhere. A stint in a rehabilitation facility in Thailand puts his issues into perspective and saves him from certain death.

He slowly reveals the genesis of his attempts to cope. Self-hatred that leads to self-destruction conceals the stigma and shame that come with being an addict when he wouldn’t even accept that he was one. Through the uncomfortable conversations he had in rehab, Cook discovers the value of life and identifies a way out. He has an overwhelmingly magnetic personality, but the show drags a bit. It’s as redundant as the vicious circle he used to be in.

Captivating writing is matched by a tireless performance that transports you in time with a complex breakdown of drug abuse. He admits that he makes it sound too good for comfort: the chemsex, the dissociation from his problems, the unbridled fun of it. On the opposite side, he places the drug-induced psychosis that landed him in a psych ward, his erratic behaviour, and the continuous benders that followed. There isn’t any preachiness or superiority in his delivery. Breaking the Castle introduces a humble, charismatic performer whose lived experience makes him an emotionally intelligent and profound man.

He reframes addiction through the beneficial lens of hindsight. He doesn’t excuse his actions nor apologise for them, but gives reasons, accepts his blame and creates an open atmosphere of non-judgement. “We’re not bad people for trying to cope,” he concludes. It’s a striking reflection.

Breaking the Castle runs at the Assembly Rooms on the following dates:  11-13, 15-20, 22-27 August.

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