REVIEW: SHE by Lee James Broadwood at Bread and Roses Theatre 9 - 13 January 2023

'the audience was stunned into silence' ★★★★

Sometimes our lives, whether we like it or not, take us to places that we never expect to go to. Places which on reflection we may wish we had never visited. Considering how fragile the human mind can be and knowing that these journeys turn out to be ones of no return for some people, the rest of us should on these occasions be grateful for how lucky we are. For those others, the ones who do not return, undergoing hardship, pain, anguish and even misunderstandings and just plain bad luck can be a devastating life changing or even life ending event.

Starting with little more than a whisper, Penny Tomai plays the part of a damaged woman desperately clinging to anything she can find in order to keep her life going. The lack of volume forces the audience to concentrate all the more. The lack of lighting focuses us on the dialogue and draws us into the intimacy of the very personal subject matter. So too does the fact that our character barely acknowledges that we are here. Barely lifting her eyes up from the little island she has created in her sea of hell.

We are taken to a world of self harm and at times self-obsession. Of depression, fear, seclusion and loneliness as we are told what the character loves, wants and misses. There is only one character. On one bed, in the near dark except for a surround of illuminated roses scattered on the floor, the thoughts she shares with us are only separated from each other by what seems like distant words projected onto the back wall at the end of each vocal chapter. This conveys how everything “out there” is distant from our character as she tells us in her solitude of her guilt, desperation, betrayal and abandonment. And those distant words like a poem are almost meaningful to her but being behind her they remain unseen, whatever hope they convey, and there are a few glimmers of hope in this play, goes completely unseen by her. And that is not the only tragic element.

The end of this play has more than one tragedy. Many people who find themselves in a similar frame of mind to our character could be forgiven for believing that they are all alone. This is part of their problem and the final voice-mail gives us a view of how disastrous that way of thinking could be.

With no dramatic movement the dramatic subject matter is not sensationalised in any way.  The very expressive voice of Penny Tomai is enough to get the message across.  Indeed the audience was stunned into silence by the end. Some perhaps didn’t want to clap something so sad. Or was it that the material brought up in this performance lies a lot closer to home than many would wish and is something we can all find easier to relate to when presented like this. Will plays like this move people to help the victims of the issues that it brought up. There is this possibility but it is hard to find the will. Especially when so often subject matter is made the slave of a cheap thrill.

On the other hand, some who saw it may consider that plays like “She” have subject matter that is too depressing and not entertaining. If so then maybe they are looking at theatre in the wrong way.  Plays can all affect us in different ways and you do not know in what way you will be affected when you first take your seat in the auditorium. The whole point is to go along with an open mind being prepared to allow yourself to be affected.

SHE at Bread and Roses Theatre 9 - 13 January 2023

Written and Directed by Lee James Broadwood

Box Office https://www.breadandrosestheatre.co.uk/whats-on.html

Broadmai Productions

Reviewed by Robert McLanachan