OBSERVER: Breaking The Castle
Peter Cook’s one man show, Breaking the Castle, is a tribute to surviving addiction.
Based on Cook’s own struggles with alcohol and drugs, the theatrical creativity employed in both the writing and performing of the piece enables the audience to appreciate the nature of addiction and its causes.
Deftly threaded through the work are indications of the factors in the character’s life that contributed to the subsequent behaviour. But it is also Cook’s ability to bring all the characters he encounters on his journey to life that is remarkable.
It is an exhibition of dramatic craft where a gesture or change of voice enables him to become another player from a fellow addict to a counsellor.
The set, lighting and sound design are no less material. The synchronicity of the sound (Kimmo Vennonen) and light (Ben Hughes) helps generate the separation between moments in time with the character, David, travelling between his youth and the present.
Raymond Milner’s sparse set has the flexibility to provide performance opportunities, the opening almost being like a stage on a stage.
Bringing all this together is Bridget Boyle’s direction enabling the pace and intensity to be sustained.
The pace is relentless and the physical demands on Cook are enormous. He sustains the action throughout. The honesty of the work can also be confronting.
There are details about drugs and sex that might be considered taboo, but they are handled in such an honest way that the substance of the work is revealing and enlightening.
There is also sufficient humour to provide a form of release in both the script and the acting that prevent the subject matter becoming maudlin or depressing.
Cook owes his sobriety to the generosity of those who paid for his rehabilitation. He has paid them back in kind with a work that is both theatrically creative and an insight that will help others struggling with addiction.
Presented at Theatre Works.
Review by David McLean