Bedbug, Drayton Arms Theatre Review
Written by Chelsea for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review.
Content warnings: References to mental health, death and self-harm.
Following their sell-out run of Flutter at Soho Theatre, Compulsive Theatre returns with their new play Bedbug by Justin Hopper.
The play revolves around Sally who is struggling with insomnia after the sudden death of her sister. Her boyfriend, Ben, tries to help her through it, but she doesn’t want to talk about it. That is until she meets a vagrant on the street in the pouring rain and brings him into her home. This man, only known through the play as ‘Wise Man’, secretly reads Sally’s journals and uses the information in them to trap her in a mind game that causes her to spiral deeper into her depression. He quickly manipulates his way into being the only one in her life. Not letting her leave her room even to use the loo, but Ben won’t be pushed away so easily. Ben has been through this before with his mother and doesn’t want the same fate to come to Sally. Will she make it out, or will the Wise Man’s tentacles become her new home?
While the play has a lot of potential, it tends to fall short in a couple of ways. Running at just over two hours with a twenty-minute interval, the play seems to drone on in parts. Specifically, the first act where you are being fed a lot of information, but not a lot is actually taking place. Whereas the second act picks up and you are almost wondering how we got here and if the Wise Man is real or a figment of Sally’s downward spiral. Which never truly gets answered and leaves you a bit confused in the end.
Because of this, the staging of the play feels very clunky in places. There is a great use of the space during the scenes, including some brilliant speeches while standing on the bed, but there were too many cumbersome blackouts that made you feel almost anxious for the actors trying to reset the stage before the lights came up. Similarly, both acts begin with the actors already on stage as you take your seat, which gives the feel that you are already peering into their story, but there was a distinct shift in the actor’s demeanours once the play’s dialogue began, which in itself felt like another blackout.
As for the actors, all three played their parts well individually. Patrick Knox’s upbeat portrayal of the Wise Man was both funny and terrifying in moments, Greg Snowden’s light air as Ben made you feel for him when he opened up about his mom, and Kayla Rainton’s portrayal of Sally is both heartbreaking and eerie as she fights through her own turmoil. That being said, where they played their characters well on their own, they lacked chemistry when interacting with each other. Especially between Sally and Ben. They seemed more like a brother and sister who hung out every so often more than a couple in love.
Ultimately, Bedbug has a lot of promise. There are some well-thought-out characters and some interesting ideas in both the writing and staging, it just needs a bit more development.
☆ ☆ ☆
