The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

Between Us at the Arcola Theatre

Between Us at the Arcola Theatre | Theatre review
3 June 2014
Theodora Munroe
Avatar
Theodora Munroe
3 June 2014

British feminist playwright, Sarah Daniels brings this play about adoption to the stage at the Arcola Theatre. Through short monologues and simulated sessions with an unseen therapist, Julia (Charlotte Cornwell), Dave (Callum Dixon) and Teresa (Georgina Rich) explore their experiences of adoption. The set, consisting of a single tub seat, immediately establishes the confessional nature of the play, which opens with Julia, a successful psychotherapist who moonlights as a rather mediocre stand-up comedian. And it’s soon evident that Julia is not supposed to deliver cyclical belly-laughs but instead cause us to query the role of women in a modern-day world, layering Daniels’ feminist roots in tackling subjects such child-bearing and marriage: “Biology gets in the way of equality,” Julia notes, “but now we can talk about it”.

Working-class New Age Londoner, Dave (who chose to become a builder after studying accounting at public school) speaks first to Julia, depressed after the birth of his daughter and worried for her safety in a modern world still seeping in sexism. At first, he wants a quick fix – some pills to take the edge of his depression – but quickly opens up about his childhood and family. But it’s Teresa’s story that is more absorbing: an upper-class woman who, together with her husband, left child-rearing too late and struggles to mother their adopted children. We also learn that Julia harbours a dark secret.

It is through these piecemeal scenes that Daniels explores the merits of adoption, pulsating on the nurture versus nature debate. How far from the tree does the fruit fall? Is it possible to love a child that is not biologically yours? Should we really give up on children because we cannot cope? What happens when we want to turn back the clock?

Although Daniels is bold in her ideas and the actors do a commendable job, Between Us does struggle to truly captivate. The therapeutic setting only distances the audience from the characters’ experiences, and despite delivery of occasionally good thigh-slappers, Julia’s monologues feel a little weighty. The play is more successful in the few fleeting scenes between Julia and her adoptive daughter (also played by Rich), allowing us to empathise with the relationship between the characters and their predicament.

Nonetheless, Daniels manages to pack many issues into little more than an hour, and it certainly feels as though she has a lot to say. The experience does lack some emotional depth and you are left wanting more, but what Daniels achieves in a short time is stimulating, beautifully acted and thoroughly thought-provoking.

 

★★★★★

Theodora Munroe

Between Us is at the Arcola Theatre until 21st June 2014. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.

Related Itemsadoptionarcolabetween usplayreviewsarah daniels

More in Theatre

The Father and the Assassin at the National Theatre

★★★★★
Natallia Pearmain
Read More

Dirty Dancing the Movie in concert at Apollo Theatre

★★★★★
Jim Compton-Hall
Read More

My Fair Lady at the London Coliseum

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

“When you’re presented with different dilemmas in life, you respond accordingly”: Debbie Kurup on The Cher Show

Mae Trumata
Read More

2:22 A Ghost Story at Criterion Theatre

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

The House of Shades at Almeida Theatre

★★★★★
Csilla Tornallyay
Read More

Grease at Dominion Theatre

★★★★★
Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

House of Ife at Bush Theatre

★★★★★
Selina Begum
Read More

Banter Jar at Lion & Unicorn Theatre: “An authentic and timely one-woman show”

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Albert Adrià reopens Enigma on 7 June as a “fun-dining” restaurant and cocktail bar
    Food & Drinks
  • Paolo Nutini at the 100 Club
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Crimes of the Future: Three new clips from David Cronenberg’s dystopian body horror film
    Cannes
  • The Father and the Assassin at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Plan 75
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • November (Novembre)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Forever Young (Les Amandiers)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • “Ruben is wonderful at picking holes in our behaviour and our egos”: Woody Harrelson, Ruben Östlundand and cast at the Triangle of Sadness press conference
    Cannes Film Festival 2022
  • Summer Scars (Nos Cérémonies)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Holy Spider (Les Nuits de Mashad)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Emergency
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Men
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Triangle of Sadness
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Aftersun
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Paris Memories (Revoir Paris)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Knocked for Six | Movie review
Secret Sharer | Movie review