Five writers, five directors and twenty five actors come together for the inaugural event from Balancing Act Theatre.
Scratch nights are a little like winter allotments: the soil is cold, the beds are uneven, and what you’re really being asked to admire is not the harvest but the intention. Finding Balance, Winter, hosted by David Gardner and Benedict Hoesl, wears that honesty openly. This is an evening about writers finding their feet rather than actors polishing their shoes, and the Traverse’s Traverse 2 becomes a kind of rehearsal room made public, scripts in hand and possibilities hovering.
The temperature of the night is best described as promising but baggy. Five short works in progress make for a long evening, and the cumulative effect can feel diffuse, particularly when staging remains deliberately minimal and delivery often tethered to the page. Yet there is generosity in the format, and patience is rewarded, not with finish, but with glimpses of where these plays might go.
58 To Go announces itself quietly and then proceeds to do something quietly radical for a scratch night: it lets go of the script. Jordan Monks and Gregor Campbell perform script free, and the difference is immediate. The piece follows Ed as he comes to terms with a terminal diagnosis, filtering mortality through humour, denial, and a gently buoyant absurdity. Maxwell’s writing, wry, humane, and deceptively controlled, lands with clarity and confidence. It is telling, and instructive, that the most fully realised work of the evening is also the one most fully embodied. That said, Lorna Panton, though reading from script, integrates seamlessly with her script less counterparts, her timing sharp and delivery assured, proof that reading need not automatically flatten performance when handled with skill.
Todgat Has Arrived by Olivia Bastin leans unapologetically into the absurd. Performed by Philip Kingscott, James Cumming, Liam Scobie and Valerie Andrews, it has clear echoes of Waiting for Godot, with a side order of social satire that recalls the classic Two Ronnies sketch with John Cleese, in which class distinctions are rigidly understood and scrupulously obeyed. Unfortunately, the characters here are not sketched with sufficient sharpness to sustain either comparison. The writing lacks the perceptiveness needed to elevate the absurdity into allegory, or the clarity required to land the humour cleanly. The central twist, that although two characters are students, one is not, merely longing to be one again, is clumsily handled, and the piece never quite articulates what it wants us to take from that revelation. Unlike 58 To Go, which takes a simple premise and spins it into multiple comic and emotional registers, this play feels underpowered by its own ideas.
No Matter What by Lorna McFarlane tackles a far more complex emotional terrain: adoption, reunion, and the destabilising arrival of a birth mother into her adult son’s life. Performed by Alexander Artis, Eleanor McMahon and Shama Rahman, the piece is earnest and often engaging, but once again hampered by scripts in hand, which interrupt the flow and constrain the emotional arc. More significantly, the central relationship never quite convinces. The mother appears scarcely older than the son, and there is a credibility gap in how quickly he seems to accept her presence, allowing her to stay in his flat before leaving her alone there himself. This is less a performance issue than a structural one. The play is trying to contain too much: emotional backstory, character psychology, and thematic weight, all within a short scratch night slot. It’s a common pitfall in new writing, and a clear contrast to Maxwell’s approach, where simplicity allows depth, is instructive.
Unhinged by Michael Tominey follows after the interval and the evening regains momentum. A two hander performed by Rebecca Tierney and Naomi Delvin, the piece is structurally simple and confident: two young women on a sofa, drinking wine, talking about men, repeatedly interrupted by their unseen flatmate banging on the wall. From this modest set up emerges something far more interesting. As the conversation loosens, we begin to sense the depth of the women’s connection, and the possibility that the emotional intimacy they share exceeds that of one character’s heterosexual relationship. The chemistry between the performers is immediate and engaging, and there’s a genuine sense of play, at one point a fit of laughter results in wine sprayed across the stage, an unplanned but oddly perfect moment of shared complicity. The piece knows where it starts, and more importantly, it hints persuasively at where it could go.
Giggle With The Gaggle by David Gardner is the most emotionally ambitious piece of the night. Set at Brighton Pride and performed by Chris Veteri, Michael Johnson, Lewis Mullan and Gavin Yule, it begins as a boisterous portrait of friendship and fun before moving into darker territory, culminating in a violent attack on one of the group. There are strong ideas here and moments of genuine impact, particularly in the closing scenes, where Gavin Yule, in a wheelchair, delivers a moving and restrained performance that brings the evening to a powerful close. The piece perhaps suffers from a lack of cohesion and a certain directorial looseness, and while it gestures towards an exploration of the contemporary gay psyche, it sometimes opts for assertion over interrogation. A deeper examination of why these characters live as they do would be more revealing than simply presenting excess at full volume. Still, the emotional payoff at the end is undeniable.
Finding Balance, Winter does not present finished work, and it makes no claim to. What it offers instead is a snapshot of new writing in motion, uneven, sometimes over ambitious, but frequently thoughtful and occasionally striking. In a theatrical climate that increasingly prizes immediacy and certainty, there is something quietly valuable about an evening that allows plays to still be finding themselves
Reviewer: Greg Holstead
Reviewed: 16th December 2025
North West End UK Rating:
Running time – 2hr (including interval)