The Lowry’s intimate Studio theatre hasn’t been used much since lockdown, and tonight Fade is staged in style—highly accessible to all groups and the play being live-screened. Nice to see there is a rewardingly high turnout.
Alice Corrigan’s ambitious script creates challenges for the cast. Four actors play younger / older versions of a brother and sister in different time periods. Director Hannah Tyrell-Pinder opens the play in a rush of sensation—the cast all on stage at the same time, each introducing their character in rapid, overlapping dialogue.
The sense of casual chaos arising from family life continues throughout the play. Except when changing costumes, the full cast remain on stage in character. When the older characters converse, their younger versions stay in the background silently behaving like children: playing, pushing and teasing. When the youngsters take centre stage, the older versions unpack crates, watch TV or knock back beers. The overall effect is to create a space occupied solely by the siblings into which no-one else intrudes.
In Bury 1986 and moving through to the early years of the 21st century, siblings Cassie (Lauren Nicole-Mayes) and Rubin (Matthew Devlin) have a close relationship, drawn together by the need to establish a united front against outside challenges. With an absent father and a mother whose mental health is deteriorating, the siblings must ensure they do not give any reason for the authorities to intervene and take them into care.
In 2010, following the death of their mother, Cassie (Daneka Etchells) returns to the family home having never been back since she left for university. She and Rubin (Stefan Race) are no longer close, and the situation may get worse. Cassie has reconciled with their absent father against whom Rubin, who became the primary caregiver for their mother when her mental health went into steep decline, still holds a grudge.
A strong script drip-feeds information and captures accurately the mundane betrayals and sacrifices which arise in a family and the difficulty in articulating emotions. Asked about her university lifestyle the older Cassie can say only she ‘’experienced experiences’’. Inevitably, there is a lack of tension. The audience knows at some point the younger siblings will come to blows, and the resentment needed to build suspense is held back until late in the play. The approach does, however, allow for a sharp and disturbing revelation.
There is the unspoken sense the apples have not fallen far from the parental tree. Like her father, Cassie dodges family responsibilities by leaving home, and Rubin may have inherited their mother’s deteriorating mental health.
The performances are excellent, not just in capturing a convincing family closeness but in making credible the possibility the younger versions of the characters will develop into their mature counterparts. Matthew Devlin shows the heart-breaking decline in the young Rubin’s confidence, while Lauren Nicole-Mayes displays a shift from cheerful childhood to a harder, even ruthless approach. In 2010, Daneka Etchells’s Cassie hides her guilt behind a bossy exterior, while Stefan Race’s Rubin is so determined to appear unambitious, he starts to appear shifty.
Emily Bold provides dialogue captions which are projected on screen and, in a nice touch, are handwritten for the younger characters and typewritten for the older. The play is still at an early point in development with the script being tweaked, so the spoken dialogue and the captions do not always match. Lucy Sneddon’s set is a warm recreation of a child’s bedroom: messy, stickers and posters decorating the walls and a general sense of being lived-in.
Fade is a fine way to welcome back the use of The Lowry Studio.
Fade is next staged at Leeds Playhouse 25–27 April 2024.