BWW Reviews: BACK DOWN, Birmingham Rep Theatre, March 2 2015

Back Down is a collaboration between Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Roundhouse and is the debut play written by Steven Camden, who may be better known as the spoken word artist - Polarbear. The story centres around three friends who embark on a climb up Mount Snowdon as their final outing before Luke goes off to university. The play is ultimately about their friendship and how such change and growing up can put strains on their relationship. It is a sentimental piece of writing (perhaps overly at times) but is heart-warming and you can really relate to these characters on an emotional level.

Camden's dialogue is very visual and Olly Shapley's simple set - consisting of a ladder, a small ramp and a few boxes - is efficient because of this. Tessa Walker's direction uses all parts of the stage and is rarely still. The togetherness of the 'scene changes' is very reflective of their relationships which I liked. Simon Bond's lighting design is excellent; not overcomplicated but naturalistic and seemed to be remarkably in tune with Camden's vision.

The show is a three-hander between characters: Luke, Zia and Tommy. The dialogue is circulated equally between them and we get a real sense of their individual personalities throughout. Lawrence Walker, Waleed Akhtar and Sam Cole are the protagonists and each give a believable and assured performance. There is no room for error as they command the stage for the full duration of the one-act play. With only a couple of stumbled lines, all did remarkably well and have a superb chemistry.

Back Down plays at the Birmingham Rep until Saturday 7th March and tours until the end of May 2015.

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