The Bench: A Tale from Paradise Heights, The Met Review
Written by Beth for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review.
Self described as a gritty comedy drama, The Bench: A Tale from Paradise Heights promised laughter and tears. Unfortunately, this was a case of overpromising and underdelivering.
The premise is very simple: 12 months pass, and we witness 12 conversations that take place on a bench, overlooking the park. Most of the scenes are duologues, with a talented cast of 5 (usually 6) multirolling throughout the show. The cast should certainly be commended for filling in for their missing actor so well; no problems were noticeable and each actor did extremely well with what they were given.
On this bench in between a bin and a battered war memorial we meet two burglars, two veterans, an angel, a fake clairvoyant, a real clairvoyant, a ghost, a paedophile, a widow, a homeless man, an artist, a street sweeper and a gang leader.
For me, these scenes were too disjunct to feel a strong narrative; although characters reappeared or were referenced by others occasionally there was little to no cohesion within the play. This wasn't helped by prolonged blackouts in between scenes while random excerpts of contrasting music were played and abruptly ended. Themes and characters were thrown in without proper care or purpose, and the text was littered with thinly veiled sex jokes, swearing every 3 words and basic word play which added little and instead distracted from the plot.
Disappointingly, there were no content warnings provided for a play which discusses memory loss, abuse of a burn victim, paedophilia, alcoholism, delusions, suicide, murder, arson, gang violence, homophobia and torture as well as using mental health diagnoses as insults. Nothing was gained by the addition of these, nor were they treated with the care needed.
I would be interested to see the other plays in this series, whether they would add to the depth of the characters or have a more coherent and enjoyable storyline.
☆ ☆
