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Harry McDonald’s Don’t Smoke in Bed is a remarkably tense expertise at VAULT Festival
“He didn’t think it was a big deal”
There’s one thing claustrophobic about Don’t Smoke in Bed that makes it a considerably totally different theatrical expertise to anything I’ve seen on the 2023 VAULT Festival to date. An exploration of the psychological aftermath of sexual violence and the harmful behaviours it might probably foment, it’s a play that’s, at instances, brutal in its unflinching have a look at trauma.
When an informal Grindr hookup turns unhealthy for Jack, all he desires to do when he will get house is crack open a bottle of white wine, curl up with finest pal and flatmate Molly and neglect it ever occurred. But as she tends to his bloodstains and bruises and tries to get him to open up over the approaching days, it turns into clear that the rippling results of his assault have taken full maintain.
Jacob Seelochan brings a quiet however steely conviction to the more and more desolate Jack and Diya Vencatasawmy makes a startling theatrical debut as Molly, the pair sharing a palpable chemistry via bitching and banter. And as McDonald explores how it may be hardest to share essentially the most private agonies with these closest to us, ruptures emerge of their friendship, pained betrayal writ giant on each their face.
Director Joseph Winer has maximised the intimacy of the Pit by reconfiguring it into the spherical, by some means drawing us even nearer into this world. And as Jack’s coping methods take bigger, extra visceral type, Winer amps up the oppressiveness of the ambiance to go away us all within the shadow of this trauma. There’s some mild on the finish of the tunnel however as McDonald questions Dionne Warwick’s affirmations about what pals are for, there’s a lot right here that lingers within the thoughts.
Running time: 60 minutes
Don’t Smoke in Bed is reserving at VAULT Festival till fifth February
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