Herons (Re-Play Manchester)

Edward Bond’s play Saved  is a watershed in British theatre, and famous for a scene in which a baby gets stoned to death. The scene is so notorious, it near eclipses the rest of the drama. Bond’s depiction of life on a London sink estate is shocking in other ways – particularly how social deprivation engenders a climate of casual barbarism.

It’s safe to assume the iconoclastic Bond was a formative influence on Stockport born Simon Stephens‘ sophomore drama Herons – first produced at the Royal Court in 2001 – as it contains all the ingredients of urban dysfunction: damaged teenagers, emotionally absent parents, and slow burning violence.

Billy (Simon Longman) lives with dad Charlie (Mark Weinman) near the Limehouse Cut in London’s East End. Charlie witnessed a horrific act on the canal towpath and was a Police witness, his testimony helping to convict local yob Bergsy Cooper. The latter’s brother, Scott (Edward Franklin) gets his kicks tormenting Billy and new best friend Adele (Lisa Gill). When Billy verbally retaliates, it’s a provocation too far.

Stephens is now a premier league playwright but Herons is the work of an emerging talent. As evidenced by his later plays (see On the Shore of the Wide World), he has a tendency to get carried away with his imagination, adding sub-plots which contribute little to the narrative: here it involves Billy’s mum, a recovering alcoholic, and a character as substantial as a ball of kitten fluff.

Yet Stephens understands teenagers and the way they struggle to express themselves. He achieves this through a spare, inarticulate poetry; sometimes you want to hear lines again just for the manner in which the words sing.   

Clive Judd directed the recent, gripping 5:30 – revived as part of the Re-Play Festival – and works similar magic here. The cast all give committed performances: Longman is suitably conflicted as the sensitive Bill, and there’s a relaxed chemistry between him and Gill as lonely classmate Adele.

Franklin finds shades of grey within the character of repellent bully Scott; at the end, it’s impossible not to feel some sympathy for this feral man-child. As Charlie, Mark Weinman gives the performance of the night, suggesting oceans of barely-understood turmoil with the subtlest of gestures; definitely a talent to watch.

Overall, it’s a troubling experience but not without optimism. Respect to fledgling company Falling Leaves for tackling something so challenging.

– Steve Timms