REVIEW: CONSENSUAL

NUFFIELD THEATRE, SOUTHAMPTON

Playwright Evan Placey won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Play For Young Audiences for Girls Like That, his brilliant 2016 Nuffield production.

This new play Consensual is even better!

Featuring a ferociously talented young cast from Nuffield Youth Theatre, this powerfully shocking and thought-provoking new production explores the uneasy jagged relationship between Freddie, a precocious 15-year-old schoolboy and Diane, his naive 22-year-old teacher.

Was Freddie simply besotted with his attractive young teacher . . . or did Diane groom and exploit him? And did they really have illegal under-age sex?

The narrative is pacy, explosive and compelling. Imaginative choreography, slick scene changes, atmospheric music, and convincing costumes give this new drama a grittily graphic reality.

As Diane the young teacher, Evelyn Blackwell illuminates the character’s well-meaning yet flawed naivety; as her confused husband Pete, Chris Campbell stalwartly handles the shocking developments; and as knowing damaged innocent Freddie, Laurie McNamara is utterly mesmeric.

Contemporary issues like the dangerous attractions of sexting, and recent revelations about abused young footballers give this production an edgy relevance.

The classroom scenes of humorously bawdy riotous reality make me glad I teach in Adult Education now!

Max Lindsay creatively directs this magnificent new play.

Runs until this Saturday January 21 at 7.30.

Playwright Evan Placey will attend Saturday’s matinee performance at 2.30 pm for a post-show Q&A. He’ll also appear in Writers in Conversation at the Nuffield on Monday February 13.

Brendan McCusker