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Where the Mangrove Grows

Theatre503, Inner London
From: Tuesday, 6th November 2012
To: Saturday, 1 December 2012

Our Review: starstar

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Synopsis

Twelve year-old Shaun just can't work it out. Why hasn't his Mum come to visit? Why has his care-worker taken away his picture book? And who is the man at the window calling him away? With a bed for a boat and a piece of skirting board for an oar, Shaun sets off for mangroves in this darkly enchanting yet highly contentious tale of a lost boy's transformation. Contains themes that some audience members may find distressing.

Our Review: starstar

Michael Coveney - 12 November 2012

Joe Hammond is a promising playwright, Tamara Harvey an accomplished director and the subject of child abuse in a care institution a topic so hot it seems over-cooked.

And that's the trouble with this 80-minute three-hander in the punishingly uncomfortable 503: a feeling of stale buns, almost, as 12 year-old Shaun (played by Charlie Jones, a member of the National Youth Theatre and a veteran of EastEnders as Ben Mitchell) is torn between the demands of his bearded middle-class minder, Mike, and dreams of escape.

The clumsily alliterative title conjures a world beyond the Victorian attic where Shaun is about to be interviewed by prospective foster parents, having been rejected by his mother; a world of freedom, forests and boat trips and of friendly people of an alien culture and different skin colour.

Shaun's fantasies have been stoked by a book, and there's a dispute between him and Mike as to what exactly he can see through the window in the dar...

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Cast

David Birrell (Mike)
Charlie Jones (Shaun)
Mark Springer (Charles)

Creative

Joe Hammond (Author)
Theatre 503 ()
Number Nine Theatre (Company)
Tamara Harvey (Director)
Amy Jane Cook (Design)
Oliver Fenwick (Lighting)
Matt McKenzie (Sound)


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