The Band Back Together
Barney Norris
Arcola Theatre
Star rating: 3
Three people used to play in a band together when they were teenagers. Both men have history with Ellie. Now they’re reuniting in their thirties to play a charity concert in aid of Novochoc – the clumsiness of that is a joke. They mean, obviously, in support of the people who were affected by Novchok – the poison which was used in 2018 in a botched assassination attack on a Russian double agent in Salisbury. So the play is set in post-pandemic Salisbury, the playwright’s home city.
The characters are meant to be in a recording studio on two consecutive days and the brick walled, tight space of Arcola’s Studio 2 works neatly for that.
Norris has a gift for naturalistic dialogue and these actors, whom he has also directed, certainly catch the awkwardness. The silences are nicely done. The play is about growing up. They can’t relate as they did as teenagers. They find themselves resorting to the things grown ups talk about such as traffic, work and parents – until the past kicks in.
All three are troubled. Laura Evelyn’s twitchy Ellie is, she claims, happy with a partner and an urge to “pop out a sprog” before too long but of course she has memories, anxieties and uncertainties which are gradually revealed. Joe (James Westphal), who has never left Salisbury and has organised this reunion, is deeply unhappy, edgy and unfulfilled. Ross (Royce Cronin) has a successful career as a professional guitarist but he too is ill at ease. It’s almost a subtle study in group dynamics with some intelligently added body language.
Of course there also has to be music because that’s what they’re there for. Evelyn (who wrote the songs in collaboration with music supervisor, Tom Cook) sings extremely well, Cronin is a fine guitarist , who has to saunter in and set up as part of the action, and Westphal is pretty good on drums. On the other hand there’s bit too much of this in what is meant to be a play, rather than a concert. Moreover, interesting as the play is, it doesn’t go anywhere much which feels oddly unsatisfying at the end.
