Traces Review – Toxic Legacy Signs of Family Conflict Hugely Entertaining | stage

forProjectSyndicate en Okrent’s black comedy about a mourning family has a distinct touch of cynicism, if the cartoonish absurdity creeps in gradually. But then families We are Ridiculous: Misbehaving and falling into early childish roles, especially in extreme cases.

The extreme situation here is not the recent death of the mother, which prompts four adult siblings to gather at her home and discuss inheritance matters, but a single item passed down by their grandfather that leads to them quarreling.

It is a painting possibly by Impressionist master Camille Pissarro, and it was also likely stolen from a Jewish family who died in a concentration camp during World War II. The siblings don’t know how she got here but suspect it was their grandfather, a decorated war hero who served on the German front, who hit her.

New knowledge of this multi-million pound family heirloom stirs up a moral brutality in them all: greedy Johnny (JJ Field) has already made plans to sell it on the black market while older sister Liv (Sally Phillips) insists they will not profit from the Nazi treasure (“We’re good people”). Younger siblings Michelle (Charlie Clive), a primary school teacher accused of acting like a child, and the fragile Rob (Sam Swainsbury), take up their different positions around the older two.

The setting is not unlike that in Branden Jacobs Jenkins’ film Suitable, in which Sam’s heirloom is found in the attic after the death of a parent. And this drama — about race and the toxic legacy of slavery — has even greater impact. Here ethical questions threaten to overwhelm Okrent’s text.

Under the direction of Michael Longhurst, the work is subdued and stilted at first, displayed in Joanna Scotcher’s half-cluttered living room as the community’s arguments about the ethics, or otherwise, of keeping the painting are debated. The four characters remain unidentified, Phillips gives a simple performance at first, and the other characters seem to follow him.

But the tone rises to a crescendo and so does the physical comedy, which is so absurd yet so funny, involving everything from their mother’s healing amethyst (turned into a weapon) to an ancient tree, which is angrily chopped down and dragged into the house.

The problem is solved too artificially – you do not believe in turning to sibling tenderness in the end. But despite this, the whole thing is riotous, silly and very entertaining, while carrying the resentment and ugliness that grief can bring out within families.