Welcome to Pimfort Review – A Shattering Study of Living History and the Past You Can’t Get Rid of | stage

eEveryone is doing their best in the Pemfort Castle gift shop, where hundreds of years of history are smoothed out into plastic cups and dragon slippers. Set around a carefully crafted set of wooden swords and jam jars by designer Alice Whitehead, Sarah Power’s stunning new play uses a living historical event to grapple with the stories we tell about ourselves, asking what happens when the past can’t be shaken off.

A “medical leech show” is pinned optimistically on the idea board for the Quiet Castle’s next event, which the meticulously oriented Glenn (the wonderfully earnest and enthusiastic Ali Haji-Heshmati) wants to be a success. He’s furious at Uma’s (Debra Gillette, exuding warmth) suggestion that they piece together the dark stories of the castle’s past, outside of time and context, while Rhea (a flourishing Lydia Larsson) is happy to agree, half her mind on the local deer she’s about to befriend.

Tenderness envelops this play like wrapping paper, which Power bides her time to tear off. We’re immersed in the idle chatter of her lovely group of eccentrics, when the arrival of ex-criminal Curtis (the formidable and crumbling Sean Delaney) throws the team into disarray. With an open heart and gentle manner, you can feel him thinking about everything before he says it: he wants to please Glenn, make Uma proud, and above all, make Rhea laugh.

But when Curtis reveals his violent past, everything changes. It’s as if his former self has joined him on stage and no one knows who to address. Power offers no easy answers about how he feels about Curtis, nor what his future looks like, and Delaney gives a wrenching performance of a man wracking with shame.

Director Ed Madden leaves the text silent, presenting the revelations and their consequences and waiting while we make up our minds about them. In the meantime, there are reenactments to rehearse, because you only need to wait several hundred years before an act of terrible violence ceases to be a tragedy and becomes entertainment instead.