Through the doors of Alphabetti Theatre tonight awaited a man and a suitcase. As the Kasabian song Wasted blasted on the radio, we would come to find out that man is Peter. He might be staying for a few days if his ex-girlfriend Rose will alone it. And the contents of his suitcase? Well, I’ll leave that to you to find out. If you have the stomach that is.

This dark comedy holds the essence of a thriller while tackling topics like Ableism, finding independence, the important fact that not all disabilities are visible and how the perceptions of a few can have life changing consequences for the worse.

Written by Lisette Auton & Richard Boggie and directed by Paul James; a point had been made in casting actors with the same disability as their character.

Steven George in the character of Pete carries himself on stage with an elegance around and confidence that locked the audience into his world from the offset of the play. Joining him as Rose, Helen Fox proved an excellent choice for the role. While delivering a monologue on coming to terms with her reality, Fox stole my heart while laying Rose’s life bare on stage.

The show did a superb job at raising awareness with statistics generated by charities such as Scope, rarely shared to the public in your regular news outlets. Additionally, highlighting the impact the covid-19 pandemic had on those who live with disabilities and reminding us of all the fact many had non-consensual DNRs at the time and are now unfortunately no longer with us.

Seeping with naturalism and rawness this black comedy has everything a theatre head like me could possibly want.

By Barrah T Al-Badry

@b_badry301

Illustration by Lizzie Lovejoy