Hope in Boxes / A Light in Every Window – The Lowry, Salford
Writer: Nicola Schofield
Director: Gayle Hare
Reviewer: Tracey Lowe
The Public Reviews Rating: 
Playwright Nicola Schofield has quite the pedigree. She was trained at the Royal Court by Simon Stephens, and won the WRITE2 Bruntwood Playwright competition at the Manchester Royal Exchange. So understandably there is a lot of buzz around this evening of not one, but two new plays by Schofield.
The first piece is Hope in Boxes, where siblings Lisa and Tony are sorting through the possessions of their dead Grandmother, Ada. As they read her old letters, they discover an unknown side to her. However, Lisa also harbours a deep secret, which Tony is determined to reveal. The play leaps from the present day to Ada’s youth during World War II.
The play deals with issues of sexual repression, ranging from the problems homosexual men dealt with during the ‘30s and ‘40s, to the peer pressure that the youth of today face. There is a wonderful relationship between Peter, a nervous gay man, and his conscripted lover Malcolm. The best scenes in the piece are the tender interactions between these two forbidden lovers when they are alone. Peter is played with a great amount of grace and control by the wonderful Phil Minns. Malcolm is portrayed by the very versatile Lee Joseph. Joseph also plays the very different role of Mike, who is trying to win the affections of secretive Lisa. He switches seemingly effortlessly between the poise of Malcolm to the swagger of Mike.
The plot unravels quite nicely and the conclusion is satisfying but it took a little too long to get there. Both the story and characters were compelling, but they were let down by the length of the piece.
The next play, A Light in Every Window, is very different. It feels very current, following the lives and loves of a group of young friends. The play starts with what seem to be disjointed conversations, but the audience slowly learn how the characters are linked. The play is very loud and lively; unfortunately the dialogue was inaudible in places due to the volume of the supposed background music. Samantha Vaughan and Julie Burrow shine in this piece, as a spurned girlfriend and an unsuspecting mistress. Their uneasy relationship makes for some captivating scenes.
Both these plays were enjoyable, and the cast were absolutely amazing. It just feels like something was missing. Hope in Boxes needs to be a lot tighter; there was a lot of unnecessary dialogue. A Light in Every Window was slightly slicker, but the plot was not as strong as the previous piece. These are two good pieces of theatre, but with a bit of work they could be great.
8:09 am on January 15th, 2012
A very fair review of two interesting new plays. I watched in a packed studio at the Lowry on Friday night and the very attentive audience certainly helped me to follow the occasionally inaudible dialogue. Greater projection was needed at times (something I come across more and more). I did get a bit restless during both plays and am glad I’m not the only one to feel they were over long and could be improved by a bit of editing.