Theatre review: On Bear Ridge

Shifting constantly between intimate lament for rural communities and ways of life that are gradually dying out, and outright apocalyptic drama, Ed Thomas’ On Bear Ridge takes place in a butcher’s shop on the top of the titular mountain. Given the character names, all-Welsh cast and the fact that Thomas and Vicky Featherstone’s production has come straight to the Royal Court from National Theatre Wales there’s a definite flavour of where this remote area might be, but the Beckettian tone of the play suggests it’s more the case that it’s everywhere and nowhere. Almost everyone has left Bear Ridge but devoted couple John Daniel (Rhys Ifans) and Noni (Rakie Ayola) have been running the butcher’s as more of a general store for years and are sticking around despite the fact that there’s barely any food left to feed themselves, let alone sell to anyone else, and they’re running out of furniture to burn for heat.

Possibly the only other person left in town is Ifan William (Sion Daniel Young,) the slaughterman who works in their basement, and was once the lover of John Daniel and Noni’s son, who died some years earlier.

The play largely consists of the couple exchanging surrealism-tinged recollections of a time in the past when everyone spoke a language that only John Daniel now remembers; the occasional sound of fighter jets flying overhead is the only sign that something is wrong in the wider world until The Captain (Jason Hughes) arrives, pointing a gun at them. He’s fleeing a battle so horrific his soldiers started killing themselves, in a conflict we learn nothing about, but his initial fear and anger dissipates as he too joins in the melancholy reminiscences over a lost past.

Thomas and Featherstone’s production effectively maintains an eerie, moody tone and the performances are impressive, Ifans and Ayola in particular really making you feel for their central couple and creating plausible characters out of their oddities. But regular readers of this blog will have both heard alarm bells at the word “Beckettian,” a comparison that’s obvious from the start but made all the more overt as the walls of Cai Dyfan’s set fly away to reveal a rocky, barren landscape. In fairness On Bear Ridge achieved something actual Beckett rarely does, which is scenes where I genuinely got into the moment and enjoyed the poetry and wry humour (though I never saw what some of the audience seemed to find so hilarious about it.)

I can’t deny there’s much to admire in both the intricate writing and the atmospheric production, and the play seems to have struck a chord with a lot of its audience. Unfortunately Thomas is operating firmly in a genre that invariably tries my patience, so this has to go firmly in the column of shows I can appreciate in retrospect without actually enjoying at the time.

On Bear Ridge by Ed Thomas is booking until the 23rd of November at the Royal Court’s Jerwood Theatre Downstairs.

Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Mark Douet.