THREE MORE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS

Renegades at Brentwood Theatre

16.09.16

By Michael Gray

CARYL Churchill's playlet from 1980 takes us into the bedroom with three couples, whose relationships are rocky, raw and toxic.

The triptych begins with the strongest element – Frank and Margaret, ten years wed, and launching late at night into a vicious war of words.

Both actors are excellent at the rhythms of the recriminations – Sara Thompson entirely believable as the anguished, frustrated wife, Tim Murphy the boorish Frank.

Another bedroom, another bed, where Richard Spong's subtly delineated Pete takes refuge in nerdy talk about movies as his depressed wife Dawn [Candy Lillywhite-Taylor] pathetically pleas for help.

The last scene has the immature film fan again, but this time shacking up with Margaret from scene one. But their ex's are never far away...

An interesting early work, and well worth reviving, especially when it's done with this kind of artistry and attention to detail.