Screwed is the debut play from Kathryn O’Reilly, directed by Sarah Meadows , making its world premiere at Theatre503 in Battersea.
“Live for the day – that’s us”. Luce and Charlene are the stars of this show. In their thirties, they drink, play, and party hard in between shifts at the metal factory where they drink hair of the dog to get through the day until they can go out clubbing again. Their colleague Paulo despairs as they regularly turn up late to work and expect him to clock in for them. Charlene lives alone in a bedsit, Luce lives at home with Doris. The play follows their destructive friendship to its tragic conclusion.
Eloise Joseph and Samantha Robinson play Luce and Charlene with energy, moving from the late night drinking binges to the morning-after hangovers, flashbacks and memory loss, bickering in the way that only close friends can. The audience can see this is not a healthy relationship and that they are holding each other back from promotions and potential partners but these women are co-dependent and it takes a catastrophic incident to break them apart. Joseph and Robinson are ably supported by Stephen Myott-Meadows as smitten colleague Paulo and Derek Elroy as Luce’s parent, Doris.
The small space at Theatre503 is well used with a simple set representing the factory floor, nightclubs, flats and a kebab van with the use of a few simple props, clever lighting and background music.
Screwed pulls no punches in its representation of the ladette lifestyle; it contains coarse language and is not for the faint hearted or easily offended. This presentation of the lives behind the binge-drinkers is very current and worth the trip to Battersea.
Reviewed by Rhiannon Evans
Photo: Sophie Mutevelian
SCREWED plays at Theatre 503 until 23 July 2016
