The Stage

Pieces of Vincent

Published Wednesday 8 September 2010 at 11:52 by Natasha Tripney

David Watson’s new play is one of fragments. Like Cornelia Parker’s exploding shed it is a thing of disarray, its pieces flung to the four corners of the room.

Robin Soans (Dennis) and Joseph Rowe (Christopher) in Pieces Of Vincent at the Arcola Theatre Photo: Tristram Kenton

The audience sit on cushions on a polished black floor and swivel to follow the action which takes place on all four sides of the theatre, the actors performing behind screens onto which film is also projected.

Watson’s play takes the form of four seemingly unconnected strands. A music teacher harbours strong feelings for his young student. A woman deals with an emotional appeal from her drifter of an ex. Two Birmingham lads discuss their discontent over a box of fried chicken. An Irish police officer goes to deliver bad news and ends up revisiting his own past.

The performances are strong, particularly from Sian Clifford, as Rachel, a woman coping with the unexpected return and then the equally sudden loss of her boyfriend, Vincent, and from Kevin McMonagle as John, the policeman shadowed by his own grief; but while Es Devlin’s inside-out design and the production’s integration of film and live action are at first intriguing, they don’t quite deliver.

There are some real problems with sight lines, for one thing, and the technical complexity of Clare Lizzimore’s production often threatens to overwhelm Watson’s episodically elegant play rather than complementing it.