Wednesday – Lowry Theatre, Salford

Writer: Ian Winterton

Director: Trevor Macfarlane

Reviewer: Dave Cunningham

The Public Reviews Rating:

Theatrical productions can provoke and even shock audiences. This is usually achieved by referring to, or describing, events that occur off-stage either in the past or the future because actually portraying them runs the risk of seeming to endorse actions that should be condemned. It takes a writer of real skill or talent to show distasteful actions without being actually offensive. Where’s Martin McDonagh when we need him?

In Wednesday psychopathic Curtis (Simon D. Bates) kidnaps Daniel (Garry Graham-Smith) and Rose (Ruth Middleton) to re-enact an atrocity that occurred in the past. This is not to exorcise old ghosts but rather to enjoy repeating the offence. The play is entirely driven by the plot and writer Ian Winterton makes no effort to explore the psychological undertones. Rose spends the entire play tied to a bed and abused by her captor but the erotic subtext is ignored. The fact that some people find bondage and even ritual humiliation erotically satisfying is disregarded. As a result the character of Ruth is never more than a victim. Worse the tone of the play gives the impression that her past actions somehow justifies her fate. The offensive comment ‘That’s what got you raped before’ is never refuted or even challenged.

Concentrating on the plot inevitably results in parts of the play seeming contrived – a character walks around barefoot because at some point the plot requires him to step on broken glass. This is acceptable in a thriller but in Wednesday the approach is so heavy-handed it limits the range of the actors. We are given no hint in the actor’s performance that the motivation of one character is unrequited love for another until the plot calls for this to be revealed.

No matter how skilled the actors they are rarely allowed to show anything other than surface emotions. Middleton conveys the terror of Rose but sounds almost comedic when the plot requires her to show a level of insight into the motivations of the other characters that somehow has escaped trained professionals. The changes that the character of Daniel undergoes throughout the play strain credibility so that Graham-Smith’s performance lacks conviction. Bates is more successful. The character of Curtis is very frightening because Bates makes him seem so ordinary – like someone you’d bump into on a bus.

The play is described as horror-comedy and director Macfarlane draws out the former very well. In the early part of the play the apprehension of the victims is made almost unbearable as they flinch to the exaggerated sound of their captor performing everyday tasks. However, he does not tackle the uneven structure of the play so that atmospheric periods of tension are followed by episodes of clumsy exposition. One assumes that the audience is meant to feel somehow complicit in the actions of Rose’s tormentors but Macfarlane is not able to draw us into the way they think. As a result we remain no more than voyeurs – observing but not really understanding and feeling vaguely ashamed for being so passive.

Provocative theatre might leave an audience shocked but with altered perceptions. Wednesday just makes you feel soiled.