REVIEW: THE SILENCE AND THE NOISE by Tom Powell, Produced by Pentabus & Rural Media, free to view online

Drug-running, addiction, physical and sexual abuse—and you might expect an hour of brutality and cynicism. Powell’s approach is the opposite. His two teenage characters are lyrical, complex, sensitive and very, very funny.” ★★★★ ½

 

You can see why this one won the Papatango Award.

Tom Powell’s The Silence and the Noise has stood the test of multiple mediums: The award-winning story was published as a stage play, first produced as an audio tour (thanks COVID) and has now been adapted for film, or, as it’s marketed, a theatre/film hybrid. Is the result more theatre than film? Yes. But it’s brilliant nevertheless.

A close-up of a knife held to a throat is the first image; “I’m going to hurt you” is the first line. Combine that with the subject matter - drug running, addiction, physical and sexual abuse - and you might expect an hour of brutality and cynicism.  Powell's approach is the opposite.  His two teenage characters Daize (Rachelle Diedericks) and Ben (William Robinson) are lyrical, complex, sensitive and very, very funny. The daughter of a woman whose house has been turned into a trafficking base meets a low-ranking runner from London. Romeo and Juliet, if Romeo were morally compromised and Juliet said things like “I’ve seen fish fingers with more kissable faces”.

Directors Rachel Lambert and Elle While have wisely trusted to Powell’s words and Diedericks and Robinson’s performances to carry the story. The location never shifts further than across a garden or a field; a few close-ups of cigarette butts and broken lawn chairs take care of scene transitions; the closest we get to any other characters intruding is a slammed door and some footsteps off screen. Whenever we see them, Daize and Ben have escaped, briefly, into a world of their own—but one where a sick mother, unforgiving gang leader and clueless police system lurk right outside.

The story’s plausibility is deepy anchored in the two actors’ performances. Above all, Diedericks and Robinson make you believe their characters’ connection, their loneliness, need and ability to be vulnerable with each other. In less skilled hands, viewers might ask themselves more often why, exactly, Daize trusts or sympathises with Ben at all: As she says, “You choose this. I don’t get such luxury.” Powell’s script does call out Ben’s privilege repeatedly, but it’s a delicate needle to thread.

Above all, the entire creative team here has taken an exceptionally bleak topic and produced something warm, human and touching. Let’s hope The Silence and the Noise has a further life—in whatever medium that may prove to be. It more than deserves it.

Images: Luke Collins

Free to view online here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrgoQ6Hj4Zg   

Tom Powell                   Writer

Rachel Lambert  Director

Elle While            Director

Em Smith            1st Assistant Director

Luke Collins                  Director of Photography

Producer             Julie Colman

Chelsea Stevens          Make-up Artist

Justin Dolby                  Sound Design

Billy Lambert                 Composer

Grant Black                   Executive Producer

Cast

Rachelle Diedericks     Daize

William Robinson         Ben

Produced by Pentabus & Rural Media

Reviewer: Anna Clart

Anna is a German-Canadian theatre maker, co-founder of the Berlin collaborative company federspiel. She studied philosophy and politics (UCL, Cambridge) before training as a director (LAMDA). A fan of radical adaptation, verbatim and devising, her recent projects played at Theatre503, the Camden People's Theatre and the Old Red Lion. She also freelances as a translator and editor.