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Bones
Written by Jane Upton
Performed by Joe Doherty
Saturday 27th October 2012
Reviewed by
Written by Jane Upton and set in Nottingham in 1998, at only 45 minutes
from start to finish the play is a one-man triumph which serves to highlight
the plight of a young man who is the victim of his own environment. As
the audience take their seats the stage is already set – dismal,
dark and depressing – with just the metal of boarded up housing
and the glow of a streetlight. The set stays as such when Mark, played
by the wonderful Joe Doherty, enters; he is nineteen and trapped in a
cycle of disadvantage, stuck in a deprived life as the only carer of his
mother and her baby.
As he tells us about his mother it becomes clear she has been a victim
of abuse and is struggling with drug and alcohol issues, his baby sister
becomes the focus of his anguish as he ponders over how best to get rid
of this child. Through his childhood memories of spending time with his
granddad, we can see what he remembers is the horrific sexual abuse his
granddad inflicted on his mother, made all the more harrowing to the audience
as it is told as a child’s memory.
As the story gathers pace Doherty perfectly plays the troubled youth,
we see glimpses of the man he could be given the chance, a description
of his sister looking at him when he picks her up was heartbreaking, but
all too brief as he is dragged back to his reality. The climax of the
play was shocking and left us talking about it the whole way home. Even
now, two days later the play is still on my mind. It was uncomfortable
to watch in parts, harrowing and perhaps a bit to ‘real’ for
me, both upsetting and heart-breaking, but overall it was wonderfully
written, gritty and above all else, extremely powerful and though provoking.
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