Kindling Review – A feminine ‘anti-friendship’ play gone corrupt and primitive in the woods | stage

SAra Rickman’s play presents an engaging feminist “anti-friendship” quest in the wilderness: May has died of cancer, and her death wish prompts her closest friends to gather together in a Welsh redwood forest to scatter her ashes.

We meet them lost in the woods, without a compass or workable map. At first, it feels like a fun day has gone awry. Their friendly relationship, if it existed at all, has curdled, and they are now dealing major blows to each other. Because even though they were close to Mei, they had little in common with each other except for the urn containing their late friend.

The fact that they are chalk and cheese is conveyed in extensive gestural ways. There’s Rose (Sarah Rickman), May’s sister-in-law, who’s hiding a secret, along with Jules (Stacey Abalogun), a tough lesbian at odds with the angry Sue (Ciara Poinsett). Jasmine (Rinda Bashuri) appears as Chelsea’s mother, dressed in a blazer and elegant dress, while Cathy (Scarlett Alice Johnson) is May’s dungaree-clad classmate who goes on silent retreats to India.

When it starts to rain and they seek shelter, you’re preparing for a massive forest fire that will never come. Despite the drunkenness and a bout of primal screaming, this drama failed to ignite; The humor is too obvious, the plot points are weak and the pacing is heavy. The highlight is the beautiful Abbey Groves set, full of autumnal colour, with scattered ferns underfoot and what looks like a patterned bush in the background.

Nothing comes alive outside the forest itself. Under Emma Gersh’s direction, there are long moments of dramatic pause as the characters sit around drinking or talking unimportant things. One scene near the end shows the women simply packing their belongings in silence, without any accompanying emotional charge.

The scenario highlights his problems in the most cosmetic way, without developing them, such as menopause, or whether or not to have children. Mai was labeled a narcissist and we heard how she gave each of these friends a bad nickname. All of this is dismissed too quickly, and none of it seems real. So, you’re left with a drama that seems to be in and of itself stuck in this rain-soaked forest, not quite sure where to go, and what to say.