Lucy Light at Theatre N16 sparkled

I was always going to see Lucy Light.

My chance encounter with playwright Sarah Milton on a train had led me to see her excellent Tumble Tuck at Soho Theatre last year and that made her next play, Lucy Light, unmissable.

So unmissable that I went to see it on a Saturday evening, not normally a time that I go to the theatre but it was the only free evening that I had. Not for the first time I caught a play on its last performance. I like to think that is good planning.

Tickets were a miserly £14, less than three pints in the pub downstairs where my Meantime London Ale was £5.5 a pint.

We were first in the queue upstairs, reasoning that we might as well sit and drink there as downstairs where the bar was noisy with music and Saturday revelry. Unexpectedly that also meant a chance to talk to Sarah before the show. She even remembered us from the train.

Being first in the queue meant securing our coveted seats in the middle of the front row where we faced a girl's bedroom with sand on the floor.

The girls were seventeen and celebrating the end of school. Lucy did so with some reservations as she was worried about her mother who was having chemotherapy for breast cancer. Lucy also carried the gene that increased the likelihood of her getting this.

We got a teenage girl's view of this as she was very interested in boys, particularly Gary, and saw her breasts as an important part of her attractiveness. That theme, the good and the bad of breasts, continued throughout the play as we watch Lucy and Jess grow to be 22 then 26. They talked about their hopes, dreams, fears and all the little things that make up ordinary life, like the flavours of Ryvita available from the local Sainsbury's (apparently they come with pumpkin seeds these days).

Several dramatic things happened which the spoilers rules prevent me from mentioning, but they concerned breasts and cancer. Many less dramatic things happened too, like jobs and walks on the beach, and it was this richness of experiences seen through the eyes of two young women that made Lucy Light sparkle.

Bebe Sanders (Lucy) and Georgia May Hughes (Jess) were both excellent. They were totally convincing as 17 year old girls and as 26 year old women and we saw them age with just a change of clothes, an adjustment in hair styles and good acting. I was impressed.

Being the last nigh there was some hanging around in the bat afterwards so I invested another £5.5 and heaped more deserved praise on Sarah and Georgina; sadly I missed Bebe.

Lucy Light was simply one of those plays that did everything right. It tackled a challenging subject with sympathy and was entertaining as it did so.

I do not know what is going to happen next to Sarah but after Tumble Tuck and Lucy Light it should be something special and I hope that I will be there to see it.

Dark Vanilla Jungle was just as scary the second time

My Google Alert did its job and alerted me to a new production of Dark Vanilla Jungle and I made my booking immediately, £14 for an unreserved seat.

I would have gone to see it if it had been in N16 (which lies just north of  Arcola Theatre) but Theatre N16 had been on its travels and had landed much closer to home in Balham where it has taken up residency above large and rambling Bedform Arms.

I had never been to Balham before (other than passing through on a train) and was looking forward to doing a little exploration too. The exploration was somewhat limited by the pub being next to the station and the difficulty in crossing several busy roads to get there.

The Bedform Arms did its job reasonably well providing a decent, if not very full, pint (eventually) and a pretty good vegetarian burger from its limited menu.

Immediately above the pub was a large function room but that was used for some sort of keep fit class and the theatre was another floor up in a modest room, much like other pub theatres such as Pentameters and the White Bear. The stage was a simple white rectangle with normal dining chairs on three sides. There may have been some more theatrical type seating behind these but I headed straight from the front row in the central block and did not pay much attention to the other seats. I was not surprised by the limited set as The Cockpit had been much the same, if rather larger.

Dark Vanilla Jungle was a monologue, told by a young woman called Andrea, that jumped in various directions, threw in a few shocks and told some stories that might not have been true. In construction it was similar to Donny Stixx but that means little more than saying all Beethoven's string quartets used the same instruments as the same techniques were used to different effects.

And like a work of classical music, Dark Vanilla Jungle had distinct sections with one story following another but told in such a way that there was no gap between them. These stories covered Andrea's early years living with her parents, being in an exploitative relationship as a teenager and then (possibly mad, possibly dreaming) her relationship with a seriously injured soldier.

Being Philip Ridley these stories were thick with prose that demanded a close listen just as poetry does. Each sentence could be appreciated for its own form as well as for the narrative that they helped to construct.

Dark Vanilla Jungle lasted about 75 busy minutes after which both performer (Emily Thornton) and audience had reached a summit that it was too exhausting to try and go beyond. I have seen plays that last twice as long do half as much.

It is because of plays like Dark Vanilla Jungle and of evenings like this one that I have a Google Alert for Philip Ridley.