Review: Ivories (Old Red Lion Theatre)

Review by Sam Waite

⭐️⭐️⭐️

For all the ghost stories shared worldwide, all of the spirits supposedly ready to make themselves known, the feeling of hauntedness is rarely more acute that when faced with painful memories. A modern take on classic horror tropes, Ivories brings modern ideas around sexual orientation into more conventional story beats, and raises that ever-present question: Is there more after life has ended? In this new production at the Old Red Lion Theatre, we may find that this question is best left unanswered.

Playwright Sloane is staying in the village house long inhabited by their family, of whom their ailing grandmother is the last remaining member. Trying to work on a newly commissioned script while both caring for grandma and prepping her house for sale, Sloane is soon joined by their husband Gwyn and his longtime best friend Beckham. Beckham is there to help sell the place, and to get drunk with his friends, while botanist Gwyn does his best to provide support both emotionally and with the unkempt grounds.

Verity Johnson’s design work is impressive, a strong sense of atmosphere falling over the audience from the moment we look up at the set. Two artfully shabby walls and a cluster if rugs are repurposed as multiple rooms throughout, a necessity in this intimate space, but the cluttered storage spaces along one wall allow for a variety of discoveries and props to be housed. Lighting design, by Skylar Turnbull-Hurd, is also very effective, impressively employing well-timed flashes and flickers of light bulbs to build tension and helping to define the various spaces through their degrees of dimness. Scenes are punctuated by blackouts and flashes of flight – this 2:22 with less extreme jump scares.

The three leading players all do well with their roles, filling in the longtime relationships with relative ease. Despite this, the chemistry among them wasn't as consistently convincing, characters’ underlying emotions hinted at much more firmly in the dialogue than in their delivery. Playwright Riley Elton McCarthy is compelling and suitable frustrating as Sloane, the struggling writer who constantly seeks feedback on their emotional monologues but remains closed off to most actual support. McCarthy paints a sympathetic picture of Sloane with both their own and their performance, but resists the egotistical urge to make the character a mere martyr or brush aside their faults.

As Gwyn, Matthias Hardarson brings a determined quality to a husband desperate to help his spouse while battling his own encounters with death. On paper, some could interpret Gwyn as pushy, trying too hard to make Sloane face things they aren't ready to, but in Hardarson’s hands he is beaten down by their shared circumstances, but love compels him to throw his energy behind husbandly support. Gwyn’s longtime best friend and playful third wheel Beckham is played by Daniel Neil Ash. Ash lets the character be the irritating presence he needs to be for the character to land, and successfully pulls off the U-turn into strong character work and genuine nuance later in the evening.

Running at 90 minutes, Ivories’ key drawback is a wealth of ideas. McCarthy delves into the supernatural, familial trauma, repressed grief, bisexual awakenings, unique behaviours within rural communities, and a love triangle. Simply put, it's a lot, and much of it feels under-explored. McCarthy’s dialogue is strong, their characters clearly drawn, and direction from Georgie Rankcom successful in keeping all the moving parts easy to keep up with. However as the play nears its conclusion, many overhanging questions are answered in quick succession, and it becomes hard not to feel overwhelmed.

Of course, others will find this rollercoaster finale thrilling and may catch subtleties I didn't that left answering the questions a mere formality, one great joy I found in Ivories was, as with many great horror and mystery stories, the opportunity to make my own predictions and build my own ideas about whether or not the supernatural existed in this world. Perhaps the strongest scene of the night, in terms of both the trio of performances and Rankcom’s direction, was when the friends gathered for a séance, leaving the audience to ponder how much was harmless fun, how much the worry of deceased relatives, and how much a calling out of unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Imperfect but undoubtedly engaging, Ivories reflects the fractured nature of its characters, mirroring their own struggles in its appearance and in its delivery. The more I sit with the clustered final minutes, the more effective they feel – the approach wasn't quite my cup of tea, but the skill behind this show is impossible to disregard.

Ivories plays at the Old Red Lion Theatre until July 26th

For tickets and information visit https://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/ivories.html

Photos by Abbie Sage