FringeReview UK 2024

Cassie and the Lights

Patch of Blue and 3 hearts canvas in association with Southwark Playhouse and Verse Unbound

Venue: Southwark Playhouse Little Studio, Borough

Festival: FringeReview UK

Low Down

Review

Alex Howarth’s Cassie and the Lights has touched down, after acclaim and many appearances (VAULT, Underbelly, Edinburgh Fringe, Off Broadway), at Southwark Playhouse Little till April 20^th, directed with a scenic set by Howarth too.

Why so special? 75 minutes later anyone immersing themselves in Howarth’s infinitely gentle play of ungentle times, will emerge with their imaginary forces truly worked upon. That’s without the aid of a biscuit, which if you’re in the first row, you might get offered, as the cast introduce themselves.

It’s not purely imaginative, but based on a true story crafted through Howarth’s former work in care, and after many interviews. You might not guess it from this, which nudges the play’s metaphor:

“A trinary star system is three stars that travel together in the sky…” This is Tin giving her Tin talk.  “If there is this ‘hierarchical arrangement’ the trinary star system is full of happy… they are safe and can shine bright on the journey… and… they’ll never, ever be alone.”

Tin (an exuberant, winning Helen Chong), or Tina is just 10 but she’s already kerned her name of her feckless mother’s Turner references and on her way to becoming a scientific prodigy. Impressive when you learn how she lives. She’s not even the centre of this system.

Cassie (Alex Brain) is the centre of Tin and Kit’s existence. Aged seven, Kit (Emily McGlynn, plangent with affect, flicking from heartbroken child to glee), has kerned her name Kitten – named by their stoned mother – following Tin.

Cassie’s not their mother but elder sister, just 16; they’re her lights. And like an adult, they note, they’re “taking it one day at a time”. Their mother’s coming back this time, isn’t she? Cassie demurs.

Not the social services, whose judgements punctuate scenes –cleverly juxtaposed and sometimes not in chronological order. Voiceovers for characters are deployed, interacting with Cassie fluently.

Ultimately the three are hosted by Waitrose-shopping, well-meaning Alice and Mark. The trio’s lifestyle changes, the couple move to adopt. Cassie resists, but when Alice nonchalantly pays for an ice-cream for Kit with a £20 note, Cassie feels everything’s stacked.

There’s key moments: Kit goes missing and ends in hospital, the discovery of a sad scan at Alice and Mark’s, everything’s dealt with in a sashay of luck and system, accident and aching aspiration – mostly Cassie’s.

And Cassie’s picked out as uber-bright by her teacher and peers, gifted as an animator of films. Can’t she just let go? Cassie though has been hard-wired as ‘mother’.

Brain is superb, interacting with wise Tin in Chong’s sparkling optimism, McGlynn’s Kit swaying with incomprehension and a seven-year-old’s simple need of a hug. What Brain conveys is an ever-shifting accommodation to adult and child relations, something no child of 16 or 17 should be exposed to.

There’s  peer pressure from Jasmine for Cassie to complete her UCAS forms, as well as her teacher. Most chillingly the Lawyer tells her in a voiceover that if she loses her bid to adopt her sisters, she’ll not see either till each turns 18.

The penultimate scenes turn on Cassie’s inspiration in court, everything stacked against her: “I will love them more than all the stars there are”; the poignant, bittersweet last moments as the trio, directed by wise Tin, gaze at the stars.

There’s an onstage musical duo who occasionally act too: Ellie and Imogen Mason provide a memorably-composed soundtrack, melt in and out of the narrative.

Ruth Badila’s costume and set of suitcases with pop-up projections for dates is a world forever fugitive, taking flight without end. The calm comes from something vaster:  Rachel Sampley’s stellar lighting design (she designed Compositor E superbly at Omnibus and other recent shows not listed in her credits) is always one to watch. Her rig’s re-designed for this space by Will Monks.

Voiceovers deserve crediting. Alice (Louie Harland), Mark (Oli Higginson), Jasmine (Bethany Antonia), Teacher ((Wendi Peters),  Lawyer (John Thomson), Social Worker (Sam Rayner), Dealer (Joseph Stevens).

The plaudits are right. Sibling love aches with devastation. The sheer riotous fun of this production is exhilarating, and this might be its last outing for some time. Do see it.

Published April 18, 2024April 18, 2024 by Simon Jenner