Further than the Furthest Thing – Young Vic

Further than the Furthest Thing is a play in two acts by the Scottish playwright Zinnie Harris, set in 1961 on a remote island based loosely on Tristan da Cunha in the first act and in an industry in England in the second act.

The play opens with Bill Laverello, played by Cyril Nri, swimming in the volcano’s lake, which dominates the island; he leaves the water as tremors rise. The play then moves to Mill Laverello, played by Jenna Russell, where Francis Swain, played by Archie Madekwe, the nephew of Mill and Bill, meets Mill, having left the island for roughly a year. Francis reveals that he has invited Mr Hansen, a factory owner he introduces as his friend, to the island.

The play is staged in an arena with seating that looks like marble slabs transporting us to a remote island away from the industrial world. The islanders’ lives change when Mr Hansen- the boss of their nephew Francis and owner of a glass manufacturing factory- scouts the island to build a factory.

‘It’s not magic. It’s a trick’, Mill says to Hansen, who intends to build a factory on the island where she has lived all her life with Bill. The play is about the conflict between the industrial world and the natives who preserve their surrounding as living beings and out of their homes who do not answer to the market and its demands.

The Light design by Prema Mehta, scenographic design by Soutra Gilmour, video design by Ian William Galloway and sound design by George Dennis was breathtaking in recreating the ocean and the machine inside the factory. However, it was used very cautiously in the whole composition. Sometimes it was felt that it was too neatly distributed in the story. The parts with heavy aesthetics did not flow into the scenes with characters and drama. It was as if we were watching two shows that did not complement each other.

The performance had several rhythm and tempo problems. Empathy with Francis could have been the solution to resolving rhythm concerns. All other characters are archetypes of their histories and existence. But Francis is moving between the two engines of the story. However, there was an unnecessary pushback against his choices in all his scenes. His intentions were not convincing, and eventually, his indecisive nature is a lot like the tragedy of Orestes. But the character has many more colours, and shades to his performance than that explored in the version.

The space design was irrelevant to the movements of the characters. The title could have suggested a composition of distance. Space could have been a metaphor for distance or lack thereof. And a similar problem was diagnosed with the understanding and use of body in the performance. A good criterion for evaluating an actor’s performance is if you noticed or heard them breathe on stage. In the play, other than Mill’s monologue, characters don’t breathe life into the audience’s imagination. Jenna Russell is brilliant as Mill and keeps the space afloat with her performance.

In the first act, the play creates a much more colourful world where we can see the world differently than what we see outside of the theatre. This world needed much more closer examination. ‘Further than the furthest thing’ is running at the Young Vic till 29 April 2023. https://www.youngvic.org/whats-on/further-than-the-furthest-thing

Reviewer: Akshay Raheja

Reviewed: 16th March 2023

North West End UK Rating: ★★