TILL DEBT DO US PART

Peta Taylor and Paul Moriarty shone in their parts as Mother and Father. Their scene came as welcome comic relief to David’s dark opening narration. It was easy to forget their performance as a married couple was scripted, especially their squabble about whether it is tasteful to divulge burial costs to the audience, as it was so believable! Moriarty has such gravitas whilst storytelling that I found myself siding with him even when he recounted his immoral behaviour.

Val and Debbie were played excellently by Sarah Mann. She expertly captured the terrifying essence of condescending boss Val, delivering cutting remarks to David in a way that made me squirm with discomfort. When acting as Debbie, her blank facial expressions and great comedic timing shocked the audience and simultaneously had us in stitches. Mann’s counterpart Nathan Ariss, who played Paul and Duncan delivered his lines with conviction and truly embodied sleazeball Duncan: his body language and tone of voice oozing with corruption. ………… read more

From the opening scene- starkly lit from the glare of a lap-top, with back projection- Jack Kristiansen gives a strong central portrayal of David and is totally immersed in the character-and his eloquent and opening scene sets the evening rolling at a fast pace-finely balancing pathos and humour to perfection. Here is an actor who has clearly conquered the plays tricky timeline.

Paul Moriarty and Peta Taylor are equally powerful as Jess’s mother and father- angrily taking out their revenge and destruction on a large statue overshadowing their daughter’s grave. Their scene has overtones of Pinter and Orton -played at such a cracking pace that the actors do unintentionally overlap-not a distraction -but uncertainty in these early performances will no doubt be finely tuned. ………… read more