London
Sublime, by Sarah Thomas
3Stars***

Tristan Bates Theatre, until April 8

One hour twenty minutes, without interval
Review: Tom Aitken, 4 April

A play about work from a playwright who knows what work is
Australian-born Sarah Thomas is clearly a hard-worker. ‘Sublime’ is her first play. At present she is working on two more as well as holding down a full time job as a solicitor.
It
is therefore not surprising that Sublime is a play about work.

For some reason that I can’t altogether put my finger on, it kept reminding me of Look Back in Anger. Partly this must be because this play, like Osborne’s, is set in an attic flat. Also there is an undercurrent of potential physical violence as well lurking behind the verbal exchanges.

The flat is occupied by Sam, a young black man. Sam seems to have two glamorous girl friends, one, Sophie, black, the other, Clara, white. Sophie has been absent for some time but returns, without much in the way of explanation, at the beginning of the play. Clara seems to be some sort of social organiser, working for a white boss.

She seems not to care much about her boss and job, managing to lose a substantial sum of his money in some offstage transaction. He expresses anger, which apparently doesn’t bother her at all.

Eventually, Sam and Sophie decide to leave the flat and go elsewhere –– whither they know not.

All the actors are very much in control of their roles and the play is not in any way tedious to watch. I have not managed to find any meaning in its title, unless it is being used in the sense of extreme, as in ‘sublime indifference’.

Sohie: Adele Onie
Sam: Michael Fatogun
Clara: Suzy Gill
Nigel/Paul: Declan Cooke

2017-04-08 15:25:58