Written by Sophie Swithinbank
Directed by Nancy Medina
Review by Jack Quinn
Onstage stands an empty chair as the audience takes their seats in the Tech Cube, awaiting playwright Sophie Swithinbank’s return to Summerhall after the soaring success of last year’s sell-out sensation and collaboration with HFH Productions, Bacon.
Behind the chair hang two suspended coats, signalling the forthcoming costume changes which will take place during our time here. As the lights descend, Phoebe Ladenburg enters with confident integrity and underlying nervousness, akin to an actor entering a casting call. As the lights rise, expertly operated by Freya Game, Ladenburg practises for the arrival of her daughter, preparing different faces for the face she has been longing for after a long time separated. This is a story of webbed lies, knotted desires and duties, and, ultimately, a mother’s neglect of her daughter.
However, as with Ladenburg’s detailed performance, and Swithinbank’s multi-layered text, this story is not a straightforward matter. The function of the meta-theatrical set-up of this performance soon becomes apparent as Ladenburg’s character is a mother but also a very talented and successful actor. Mother is here to set the record straight: ‘I don’t know what version of events you’ve been told, but here are mine’.
The narrative is cleverly framed by the reunion of mother and daughter (aged twelve) in prison, which overlaps with the mother’s recollection of events as they happened and scenes in which the mother undergoes a lie-detector test in custody as the nature of events of neglect, struggle, and sacrifice are revealed. Ladenburg’s mother wrestles with job opportunities, which arise when the world demands that she surrender all desires except those of motherhood. There are moments where the direct address to the audience is slightly too familial, detracting from the integrity of the work, yet Ladenburg’s magnetic performance demands that we surrender to her method of storytelling.
Surrender is a tightly orchestrated piece, with brilliant direction by Nancy Medina, that unlocks the specificity of the demands of a meta-theatrical play dealing with the prescient conversations concerning working mothers in the theatre industry. It ultimately shows the prevalence of a mother’s love for her daughter within the system of social care that threatened to break them apart.
Review by Jack Quinn (contact@corrblimey.uk)
This gander likes to keep a lower profile than the rest of the flock. No less determined, this particular gander might just be someone who wishes to keep their feathers out of the business…!
