The Stage

Rigged

Published Wednesday 14 October 2009 at 12:35 by Susan Elkin

Rigged is an immaculately well-written, intensely powerful piece about four interlinked 21st century lives, each in its way as tragic as King Lear.

The only minor criticism is that playwright Ashmeed Sohoye tries to pack too many issues - violence, gambling, teenage pregnancy, adult illiteracy and many more - into too small a space, although they are all connected and make the topical story alarmingly and poignantly plausible.

Nathan (Kyle Summercorn) has failed to finish school and has an ASBO for criminal damage. His girlfriend Sarah (Niamh Webb), desperate to make something of her life, is pregnant. His inadequate but decent mother Kathy (Daisy Whyte) is illiterate. She has turned to the church for comfort and passionately wants the best for Nathan but is thwarted by his frequent regressions. Then there’s the adoptive father Gary (Paul Clerkin) who does his best but resents the insularity of it all.

Summercorn gets Nathan’s vulnerable aggression, anger and confusion just right and is deeply moving when he weeps. Whyte’s strong performance makes much of Kathy’s insecurities and anxieties, Webb brings a troubled warmth to Sarah and Clerkin’s Gary is a clearly recognisable type - innately kind but frustrated by his own sense of failure.

Rigged, intended for audiences aged 14 and over, is artistic director Natalie Wilson’s first commission for Theatre Centre and she deserves full marks for a fine piece of provocative and compelling theatre.