AN INTELLIGENT EXPLORATION OF THE CONFLICTING FEELINGS SURROUNDING FORMER FRIENDSHIPS

By Richard Cubitt · Richard Cubitt Substack ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Press Invite

The Dawn of Reckoning is a new play from acclaimed playwright, Mark Bastin, and award-winning director, Matthew Parker, which is premiering at White Bear Theatre in Kennington.

The play is a two hander one act play, centring around the strained relationship between two women in their 60s, something which is rarely seen on stage, and this felt like a satisfying opportunity to see these kinds of roles portrayed by two exceptional actors, in Bryonie Pritchard and Jilly Bond.

As someone who often dwells on past friendships, I felt that the play really resonated with my own experience. The play felt satisfying in the way it depicted the complex emotions surrounding a friendship which has ended, from the desire to find out what had happened in the part of someone’s life you did not get to experience, to the overanalysing of the character of your former friend, and ultimately the sadness of what has been lost.

Bryonie Pritchard, as Helena, nicely portrayed these feelings through a performance which initially seemed strongly liberated, delighting in the wit of Bastin’s dialogue before slowly revealing the character’s conflicting feelings about her former friend, Ruth. Throughout the first half of the play, you catch Helena often, accidentally falling into old, more friendly, ways of relating to Ruth. Pritchard further emphasises this sense of conflict through the moments she returns to recrimination, as you can tell that Helena is making these comments as much to remind herself that she is angry, as to tell Ruth.

Meanwhile, Jilly Bond, playing Ruth, delivers a terrific physical performance, subtly hinting at hidden complexities to the plot, purely through her facial reactions to Helena’s comments. Her acting choices are highly effective at adding pathos to otherwise throwaway comments.

The production design by Hannah Williams has a strongly retro appearance, which added to the impression of experiencing the personal histories of two people all at once. I felt these retro stylistic choices also echoed clever British plays of the 20th century, such the works of Tom Stoppard and Alan Bennett. I felt Bastin’s script also reminded me of these writers, through its witticisms, and the way its script nicely tied together at the end, with memorable, but seemingly throwaway lines, being given resonance through later revelations. I did however feel like aspects of the latter stages of the play felt somewhat contrived, in that they felt mainly there to provide twists, rather than due to thematic resonance.

Ultimately though, The Dawn of Reckoning is an intelligent exploration of the conflicting feelings surrounding former friendships, buoyed by two exceptional performances.

The Dawn of Reckoning is running at White Bear Theatre until Saturday 28 March.

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Photo Credit: Rob Cheatley