The Stage

Thin Toes

Published Monday 25 February 2008 at 12:55 by Aleks Sierz

To be an artist, you have to be something of an exhibitionist, but are eating disorders also a form of attention-seeking?

In Laura Stevens’ thought-provoking debut, Andrea is a young painter who has grown up in the shadow of her mother Meg, once a highly successful artist but now a has-been. When the anorexic Andrea starts chasing the “perfect weight”, her best friend Lucy is drawn into mother-and-daughter’s dysfunctional relationship.

Stevens’ well-observed play is enlivened with some appealingly bitchy moments, and her account of mother Meg and daughter Andrea’s tightly twisted feelings is both familiar and undeniably moving. At the same time, and despite edging towards a note of qualified optimism, it is also rather relentlessly depressing.

In common with several other examples of recent new writing, director Julia Stubbs has imaginatively staged the play in a specially adapted space, in this case the theatre’s attic, which has been decorated by designer Georgia Lowe to look like an art gallery. This effectively draws in the audience and also provides a suitably intimate playing space.

The acting is excellent: Helen Millar’s stroppy Andrea contrasts perfectly with Elizabeth Bichard’s naive and needy Lucy, while Camilla Simson’s Meg is a convincing mix of aggression and failure. In the end, what stays with you are a couple of stage pictures: Millar quietly cutting out ultra-thin paper figures or stuffing her underwear full of snacks - vivid images of anorexia.