Two Come Home at Cockpit Theatre Review
Written by Becky for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
As dramatic as it is delicate, Joe Eason’s Brokeback Mountain-style drama, Two Come Home, marks its statement debut at The Cockpit. Carefully tackling hard-hitting themes of rejection, homophobia, poverty and addiction, the new play, is made by compelling acting performances, however falls short due to its unfocused narrative.
Set in rural Southern America ten years after a fateful incident, recovering addict Evan (Joe Eason) is living a humble existence, working multiple jobs and singing at the local bar. When he encounters his long lost lover Jim (Ryan Williams), ten years after their dramatic split, leaving Jim nearly dead at the hands of his father, old feelings and demons resurface, resulting in dramatic consequences.
Eason does a remarkable job of playing Evan. His body language, tone of voice and subtle facial expressions highlights the trauma that Evan has been burying, and his internal struggle with facing his true feelings of love towards Jim, and anger towards his family. This is encapsulated in his change of expression when Jim comes over for the first time in a decade. Evan sings him a song with his guitar and Jim starts to embrace him from behind. Eason’s voice starts to break; he looks up with despair, then, after the song ends, they rekindle their romance. The sensitivity from both Eason and Williams created a beautiful moment of theatre, crafting an even blend of pain, anger, passion and fear.
Accompanying the moving acting was its moving live score, also composed by Eason. A haunting string duet, Emily Moment on guitar and cellist Elizabeth Clemons Hopland, added another dimension to the production, immersing the audience into the intensity of the character’s circumstances. Tag lined as ‘a new play with music’, it would have been nice to see the score develop throughout each scene rather than be an effective scene transition tool and backing for Evan’s songs. There were perhaps some missed opportunities to use the live music to heighten the drama of the show.
The second act was when the plot began to be unfocused, where the narrative shifted between Evan and Jim’s relationship, to the reunion between Evan’s mother suffering with addiction and his newly released from prison father. Evan and Jim’s love story started to be overshadowed by Amy (Krista Larsen) and Caleb (Michael Claff) and their quest to confront Evan. This unfortunately led to a soap opera style climax, with four-way arguments going around the stage that never brought any further insight into the characters. However, through further development and prioritisation of narrative voice, there is potential to make the ending of the script as chilling as the convincing performances.
On at The Cockpit until 13th September, Two Come Home is an overall must-see in London’s LGBTQ programme, that is packed with resilience and chemistry.
★★★
