Pins + Needles, Kiln Theatre Review
Brian Vernel (Robert) and Gavi Singh Chera (Rob) . Photo by Mark Senior
Written by Jasmine for Theatre and Tonic.
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review. All opinions are our own.
Rob Drummond’s new ‘verbatim’ play will leave you replaying the night in your head, questioning what you heard, never being entirely sure of the answer.
What would have you think it is simply a verbatim play about vaccines, is actually an unpredictable and endlessly inventive show about who we can trust and how we decide who to believe, that never truly settles on a clear method of making such a high-stakes decision. The entire production is set up to make you doubt everything that you hear, and catch you out every time you falter.
It works really effectively, setting you up a the beginning with a friendly, seemingly open, ‘Rob’ - the writer - played by Gavi Singh Chera, who is going to walk you through the show. But of course, this is an actor, playing the writer, so from the first moment when he introduces himself, you know it’s not quite as face value as it seems.
Singh Chera plays ‘Rob’ as an affable, good-natured writer who wishes to remain impartial and simply to understand the people he is interviewing, but the play cannot help but always turn the mirror back on itself, leaving us unsure how verbatim, or uninfluenced, these ‘verbatim’ stories really are.
However, regardless of that question, you can’t help investing wholeheartedly in the characters of Mary and Robert, who Vivienne Acheampong and Brian Vernel play with moving depth and sympathy. Even where you may not agree with them, you cannot help but understand where they are coming from. It is a truly impressive element of the play that it feels impossible to be angry at either one of them for their mistakes, at a time where that is often people’s instinctive reaction to reading stories like theirs.
The third interviewee, so to speak, is a slightly more surreal one; Edward Jenner, a man who pioneered the concept of vaccines, and who has been dead since 1823. So, not the easiest person to get into a verbatim play. His inclusion reminds us that this is still a fictionalised account, that the real Rob Drummond is making up and editing as he pleases, not an unfiltered reality. His inclusion is also incredibly fun - Richard Cant’s performance as the cheeky flute-playing scientist brings a lot of levity into the piece, offsetting the heavier tones without undermining them.
It is Edward Jenner who helps ‘Rob’ approach this play through the scientific method, taking us through the steps, and often himself interjecting in the stories of the other characters to have his say about scientific proof. But, of course, his story too is not free from doubt.
Not trusting anyone could be a really bleak approach to a play, but it speaks to the sensitivity of both Drummond’s writing and Amit Sharma’s direction that even whilst doubting everyone you can still sympathise with every character, in every moment of the show. It says a huge amount for the value of being like ‘Rob’, as he speaks to each person - not knowing all the answers, but not judging someone else if they might get it wrong. It reminds you that maintaining sympathy for people we disagree with is the only way perspective-shifting conversations can happen.
This play is unsettling, meta, often shocking, and incredibly moving, as through the stories of the four characters onstage you drill endlessly into the question of trust, to find doesn’t have the solid sort of answer you might hope for. All we can do, then, is keep talking to each other.
At Kiln Theatre until 26 October 2024.
★ ★ ★ ★
