Ten Tiny Toes

Published Thursday 19 June 2008 at 13:10 by Chris High

Set in Liverpool, but based in Iraq and Afghanistan, three families scan the Internet or watch 24-hour news for information about their serving sons and whether an audience’s politics is pro or anti-war, the balance and depth of emotion both writer Esther Wilson and director Polly Teale have injected into each side of the argument is so powerful it is impossible to tear one’s eyes away.

All of the performances are electric, backed by TV images projected onto a huge screen at the back of the cleverly designed set, as the families gather to watch on their small sets in the corner of a room.

Lisa Parry as Gill Kent, who has to endure her eldest son, Mikey, joining up first and then her youngest, Chris, following, is outstanding in giving her character a realistic edge that is beyond reproach. Joanna Bacon, a protestor not only against the war but of how the servicemen and women are being treated is hauntingly dogmatic as she rings her bell and reads out the names of the newly deceased, mourning the loss of her own son in private. David Lyons as Mikey is so acutely impassioned he might well have stolen the night were it not for Joe Shipman’s portrayal of Chris, the Kent’s youngest son. Here in its own right is a performance filled with enough humour, sadness and eerie resonance it is worthy of the admission price alone.

In writing a play that should be shown to everyone who has a view on what this war and others is actually about, Wilson has created not only something important but also something quite astonishingly beautiful, and long may the Everyman and Playhouse continue to encourage work of such quality from its burgeoning stable of writing talent.