The Stage

Black Aspirins

Published Monday 5 July 2004 at 13:20 by Helena Thompson

For a show set in one seedy bedsit, Black Aspirins has a lot to offer. Sharp one-liners, surreal images and well-defined characters are sure to keep the audience entertained.

True to writer Darrin Grimwood’s experiences as a night worker in a mental asylum, the story teeters on the brink of sanity and madness. Left scandalously ill-equipped to care for such lost souls, three social workers struggle to keep their rational perspective. The result is a bleak portrayal of both the state of the NHS and of the fragile human contition.

Director Nic Saunders brings out the horror of the script. In the absence of a clear protagonist, he presents a vision of a micro-society at war with itself and its environment. As the washing piles up and the screams of the inmates grow louder, a tyrant emerges - along with a coward and a loon.

Although the writing sometimes wanders and not every twist of the plot is intelligible, the production sustains a high level of tension. Nicholas Dawkes and David Hepple give particularly fine performances as the downtrodden ‘helpers’ trapped in their lowly jobs, while designer Sarah Broad’s artfully disordered set brings Grimwood’s pressure-cooker play to life. After 105 gripping minutes, we can almost smell the stench of the inmates’ dirty clothes.