TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2024
Wasted
Sharon Duffy and Warren McCook in 'Wasted'. Photo: Bruiser Theatre Company
Kat Woods' Wasted is one of the best plays I've seen this year – taut, challenging and powerful, an acting, writing and technical showcase of some magnitude. Directed by Lisa May for Belfast's Bruiser Theatre Company, the production's mental and physical demands on actors Sharon Duffy and Warren McCook translate themselves into an exemplary form of performance art with messages resonant and vital.
The messages of Wasted spring, most probably, from the title – arising from a state of mind and a consideration of how one spends their time all together. They get to the prolonged craziness, and continuous sparks of temporary magnetism, at the centre of a drink, dance and rave culture, where a person's dress sense and actions seem to be led or controlled by a collection of images absorbed from the media and from peer pressure. Woods' story, guided by May with what's become her usual consummate skill, ambitiously and successfully diverts itself into multiple narratives while Duffy and McCook play several characters of differing responsibility and standing, from studenthood to adulthood. Strobe lighting is sporadically cast upon stripped-back and commendably practical set design as trust is prominently placed in the performers to exhibit the complexities in the personalities they inhabit.
While the overall impression is indisputably heavy and unsettling, it is neither oppressive nor brutish – it is instead uneasily but crucially insightful in confronting the demands on people both human and vulnerable in this particular setting. There is a sense that, without saying too much, a wide and high doorway has been opened to a deep corridor where various pathways of decision-making have the potential to draw a person away from the sensible to the emotional – where the opportunity to feel as if nothing and nobody else matters for a short space of time can be devastatingly countered by realism and the thunderous impact of what follows the morning after, tied into the level of pressure placed upon those who are expected to channel their energies into help and support in another's time of need. It is the price of judgement, the nature of intent and the murkiness in between, all scattered out in front of the characters in what one hopes will be an exercise in growth and erudition. What is certain is that time spent taking in Wasted is the exact opposite of wasted - within the audience, there is a sense of genuine awe at what Woods, May, Duffy, McCook and their talented team have accomplished here.
Simon Fallaha
Wasted concludes its current tour with a run upstairs at The MAC, Belfast, from Wednesday September 25 to Sunday September 29. For more information, and tickets, click here.