Theatre review: The Other Place

The National's currently got a full programme of shows that are as critically acclaimed as they are, frankly, bleak, and after the Dorfman's A Tupperware of Ashes and the Olivier's Coriolanus I'm completing the hat trick at the Lyttelton with Alexander Zeldin's The Other Place. Loosely (very loosely, which is why it's got a different title, Simon,) inspired by Antigone, the story's look at burial rites as a way of showing respect or contempt becomes one of how they're about saying goodbye, and how grief can turn into something toxic and twisted. Adam killed himself at his rural family home a few years ago; his brother Chris (Tobias Menzies) now owns it, and has kept the ashes there where he now lives with his new wife Erica (Nina Sosanya) and her teenager Leni (Lee Braithwaite,) as well as Adam's youngest daughter Issy (Alison Oliver) who moved back in when she couldn't pay her rent.

Chris and Erica are making major renovations to the house, and they think it's a good opportunity to finally scatter his brother's ashes. But on the day of the ceremony Issy's older sister Annie (Emma D'Arcy,) who hasn't been in contact for months, arrives with other plans.

Annie insists that the ashes be kept in the house where her father lived and died; although there's a lot of other family trauma waiting to be revealed over the course of the evening, one major difference from Sophocles' character is that this version of Antigone hasn't accepted her loved one's death even years down the line, and is actively trying to prevent the closure that scattering the ashes will bring.

Zeldin also directs a production that's very tautly, intensely performed by the whole cast. There are occasional funny lines to lighten the tension, mostly from Leni whose enthusiasm at meeting their new step-cousin doesn't always read the mood of the room; also from family friend Terry (Jerry Killick,) although if it seems like he's likely to reveal a creepy side that suspicion wouldn't be entirely unfounded. And, in a story whose original follows on from the Oedipus myth, there's more deeply inappropriate family relationships to be uncovered.

The statement windows of Chris' remodelling of the house start as a bit of a running joke, but Rosanna Vize's set design and James Farncombe's lighting use the view over the dark garden, and the sudden turning-on of the lights when someone triggers the motion sensor to atmospheric effect. But it's the performances that make this such an intense experience, from Menzies and D'Arcy's bitter confrontations to Sosanya's steely but quietly devastated reactions*. Not the cosiest of family reunions but it deals sharply with issues of trauma and depression without lingering on them.

The Other Place by Alexander Zeldin is booking until the 9th of November at the National Theatre's Lyttelton.

Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Sarah Lee.

*what I love about Nina Sosanya as an actress is that her range goes from being utterly terrifying with a single look, e.g. in Teachers, to being the most vulnerable person on earth in His Dark Materials, and something of both in this