Written by award winning poet and English student Caroline Bird, this piece of new writing promises to entertain. Set in a downmarket hairdressing salon in North London, it centres around the dysfunctional lives of the children of a broken home; protagonist Tansy (Madelaine Dodd) is left to care for and support her younger brother Aiden, who has special needs.
Dodd is utterly convincing: her compassionate yet compulsive portrayal demonstrating the difficulty of her position, as older sister, best friend and stand-in mother.
When Aiden is invited on a date by the most popular girl in school, only to be stood up as a practical joke, Tansy takes it upon herself to wreak revenge upon Constance Barnwell’s effectively portrayed fifteen-year-old ‘fashionista’.
The elevation of modern ‘’family values’ is called into question as we follow Tansy’s struggle and come to realise how utterly alone she is. Characters who should be there – mother, father, police and teachers – are referred to, but are absent from the action.
The only problem with this is that the individuals tend to veer towards stereotype. Whilst this helps to embellish the social satire, it does so at the expense of fuller sincerity.
This is especially noticeable in the way that the play tackles disability. A notoriously difficult subject, it is rather vaguely portrayed; one is left wondering exactly what Theo Whitworth’s tentative Aiden actually suffers from. The play evokes sympathy, certainly, but by sticking firmly to the boundaries of political correctness, rather than by engaging with depth of character or experience.
This, however, does not detract from Caroline Bird’s insightful, witty writing or from the acting that skilfully brings it to life. It is ultimately a play of our time.
