Edinburgh Fringe 2017
Whore: A Kid’sPlay
Squire Lane Theatrical and Baby Crow Productions
Genre: Drama, Fringe Theatre, New Writing, Theatre
Venue: Greenside at Infirmary Street
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Two girls who are best friends and have a common friend in Patrick who is a spelling master and gay; he knows that he is a spelling master. One of our young girls has to deal with their father going off to San Francisco to explore his darker sexual side after belting her across the face because she didn’t understand; we find out later that dad has a swing set in his new flat. Alongside that we get the interfering issue of religion, having begun the piece with one of our young women praying to God though she is from a humanist household. It becomes clear that mom – she once was talked out of an abortion by a priest and regretted it ever since – is at the heart of the irony and issues in the play. These veer from one side to the other until Patrick leaves the stage and the two girls reconcile to resolve “issues”. It’s a blast and a white knuckle ride.
Review
With such a massively provocative title and a publicity drive that must be the envy of many, this promises a great deal. It manages to deliver.
This is where the Fringe excels – drama that treats orthodox subjects in an unorthodox manner. Shining a spotlight on the whole sexualisation of parenthood and child rearing with the view of the young people beginning to find themselves is hardly new but here playwright Reese Thompson manages to delve deep into the effects that liberation may have on our relationships and our young people. This works well because of that and we get to see many perspectives from a disunited group of young people whose confusion along gender lines leads to missing one of the most important empathetic lessons of all – that quietness nor bolshiness is not confidence.
The direction is crisp and clean with a lot to commend it as the characters were all brash and vulnerability whilst we got a real sense of Patrick as a high flyer. His needs were being met by a needy mom and then his real needs were left abandoned within him. Patrick, though, really does give out bad advice.
Theatre arts were evident throughout as the music and the chorography of the medley in particular a really great moment. But the real stand outs were the pathos with which some of the lost childhoods remained unspoken.
The set was all backdrop until we got the washing away of hopscotch on the stage floor and the building of blocks being taken down and rebuilt again between Patrick and his mom. The image was not lost of losing your innocence and childhood and being unable to get across barriers.
This was a very effective run through the fields of youth and sexual confusion, most of which comes from the behaviour of those who ought to know better, but then again their own role models probably knew less than they do now.