“Five, six, seven, eight – step right, swimming motion, move like Jagger, turn and again!”
Exercise is good for us. We all know that. It is beneficial not just because it helps to shed a few pounds, it also gives a much-needed boost to our mental health. Progress over perfection is the key to success.
Writer Eve Steele has produced a play so full of heart you can hear it pounding like the ticker of an unfit beginner at their first exercise class. This finely judged play is polemical when it needs to be, veers on the right side of sentimentality and brings together a wonderfully disparate group of characters. Together they become their own little mini community.
They all have their problems including drug addiction, alcoholism, hoarding and overeating. Damaged and defeated they come to the exercise class which is run by Alice (Elizabeth Twells) who fizzes with energetic enthusiasm and, on the face of it, seems to be almost perfect. It is compelling to see how her poised self-possession fades as the drama unfolds.
In less deft and skilled hands the play could have become a series of archetypes, the drug addict, the alcoholic with anger management issues, the angry pensioner but because it is so well written and directed, we see these people in three dimensions. Director Sarah Frankcom, who worked for many years at the Royal Exchange, brings out the subtleties and underlying emotions of the characters making them believable and identifiable.
They slowly start to communicate with each other and the world but their inability to make themselves heard is encapsulated by the character of Rebecca (Raffie Julien) who is not only deaf but refuses to speak. Using sign language, mixed with mime and dance, we were able to observe how overwhelming the world is for her and how the class helps her to escape it all.
Rebecca has brought along her angry Irish grandma Marie (Eithne Browne) who, at first, doesn’t want to be there and refuses to take part. She spits venom and is full of sound and fury but slowly she starts to make progress.
As does Shaq (Dominic Coffey) who is trying hard to get going with his life, but he is finding it difficult to get anywhere. One of the highlights of the show is when he dances alone to a jazzed-up version of Radiohead’s Creep. It is clear the actor is a scintillating dancer and after his solo he received a deserved round of applause.
Rab (Aaron McCusker), an ex-con with alcohol and anger issues, forms a relationship with Siobhan (Eve Steele), a drug addict who wants to come clean so she can see her daughter. The class has brought together these two damaged souls who are looking for a way to heal their wounds.
Colette (Eva Scott) is a shy, overweight, well-meaning woman with eating issues and her problem with food was movingly shown in a compassionately, clever scene which said it all without words.
Jenni Jackson, the movement director and choreographer, has clearly worked hard with the cast and there are some wonderful set pieces. I have to say that Elizabeth, Dominic and Raffie were the best movers but there is a wonderful part where Eithne struts her stuff.
The powerful ending to the play brings into sharp focus how important it is that we look after each other in the wider community as we all live our lives and try to work it out.
Work It Out continues at HOME until the 16th March – https://homemcr.org/production/work-it-out/
Reviewer: Adam Williams
Reviewed: 5th March 2024
North West End UK Rating: