A son, brother, nephew, lover and soldier. A life lost and the lives left behind.
A young soldier, unable to reconnect the pieces of his life after returning from Afghanistan, takes his own life. A disparate family, unable to process what has happened, struggle with their grief.
As their story unfolds year-on-year, we see communication breaking down and new connections forming, punctuated by filmed flashback from the young man’s phone revealing intimate moments with his partner, playful interactions with his sister and coming out to his mother about his sexuality.
Combining live action and film, this production is a compelling and moving play exploring the ongoing process of dealing with profound loss. In The Bones is the second collaboration between Root & Branch Productions and American playwright Cody Daigle-Orians, relocating his work to the North of England.
The play begins with the funeral of Luke (Jesse Wright) who had taken his own life after strugging with his life as a soldier in Afghanistan and the subsequent traumatic and transformatic events he has suffered and endured since this. The grief was really present here… Dee, Luke’s mother (Julie Root) played the grief stricken parent with passion and empathy. A conversation just before the funeral between Dee and Ben (Ben Sherlock) who was Luke’s partner, was acted with grief oozing from every pore, evincing the hurt and pain they had both suffered and how the travails of the day had bought it all to a head. Dee was clearly struggling with this day and was in no frame of mind to talk about her son’s past and indeed his relationship with his lover Ben. Her disapproval and inability to accept her son’s relationship with his gay lover was just too much to handle.
Through TV footage the play then showed clips of videos that Luke had recorded. They portrayed the happy times he had with his sister Chloe (Sherelle Armstrong) and his boyfriend Ben, but they also showed how fragile and insecure he was prior to his death. There was also footage about the moment when Luke eventually told his mother about his relationship with Ben, and her inability to discuss or accept her son’s “coming out”.
The play then switched to after the funeral and another emotional and powerful encounter with Kate (Prue Griffiths), Dee’s sister and Ben who had been totally cut off and abandoned from Luke’s family. Kate was totally unaware of how Dee had cut him off and not allowed him any access to Luke’s house. Dee had taken possession of Luke’s house and all his possessions after the funeral and her daughter Chloe was living there.
Another momentous scene was when Chloe opened a box of things that Luke had left with notes and mementos for the people who meant so much to him. This is where Chloe learned about Kenny (Luke Goddard), who was a guy who had served with Luke in Afghanistan and witnessed the devastating and traumatic moment when Luke accidently killed a child of 8/9 and how Luke could never forgive himself for this…Chloe eventually agrees to meet up with Kenny and they form a good relationship. This helps Chloe to understand what her brother had gone through.
The last acting scene of the play is when Chloe and Kenny become engaged and they celebrate this with Dee and Kate. But still at this point Dee is very bitter about her son’s death and showed signs that she could not move on in life. She was still so angry and grief- stricken, and her inability to engage in the happiness of the occasion was palpable. This is when Dee finally acknowledged how her son’s mental turmoil and regret, together with his inability to relinquish the shackles of the guilt from his accidentally killing a young child in Afghanistan, had had such a devastating impact on his life, and why he saw suicide as the only means of escape
The last scene was played with spine-tingling passion and empathy. It provided a deeply edgy and emotive expose of the multi-dimensional and ultra-complex consequences of the loss of a child, brother, nephew and lover. Some of the audience were moved to tears.
It would be unfair to single out any single actor for particular praise as they were all integral to what was a compelling and pulsating piece of drama
Reviewer - Debbie Jennings
on - 31/5/19
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