Written and Directed by Seb Elder
Review by Gabriel Rogers
Third Culture Productions‘ debut fringe show boldly explores how grief and the climate crisis affect a young family and their friend. No Place Called Home, written and directed by Seb Elder, doesn’t stage the climate crisis at ground zero but instead in the countryside home of Laura and Ellis, a young couple played by Eliana Kiakides and Finn Vogels. After the death of his mother, Ellis is overcome with grief and cannot continue with his job – forcing the couple out of London and into his mother’s old home in the countryside. Their situation is made all the more intriguing when Francis, a family friend played by Ami Antadze, calls and asks if he could stay with them as floods have destroyed his house. With the effects of the climate crisis at their door, Ellis and Laura are forced to wade through it front on, and it is their differing reactions to an ever-changing world that pushes them under the current and away from one another.
Vogels’ Ellis is a warm man who dotes on his partner and longs to have a family of his own. However, he is haunted by the death of his mother and is unable to move forward with his new family as an adult because of this grief. This is compounded by Elder’s smart decision to set the play within his mother’s old home – a place without escaping the shadow of her death. His grief makes Ellis into a child who must be mothered, and Laura is forced to take on the burden. This is the actual undoing of their relationship as Ellis ignores how the world is changing and hides under the blanket of his own grief. He views having a child as the vehicle through which he might mend his own “broken” heart. In comparison, Laura sees how the world is worsening and fears the thought of bringing a child into it. Vogels does a brilliant job of making Ellis’ childish vulnerability come to life. He constantly holds himself as if he could fall apart at any given moment and reacts like a chastised schoolboy when told off for spending too much on shopping.
Kiakides is brilliant in the role of Laura and turns in a performance that is subtle and genuine. Her conversations with Antadze’s Francis are brimming with compassion as she talks through the horrors of his experiences. Indeed, her exploration of Laura’s relationship with Ellis is similarly impressive as she subtly shifts from feelings of love and happiness to resentment and anxiousness by the play’s end. Laura’s final admission that she cannot have Ellis’ baby is a great moment in the performance as Kiakides heartbreakingly opens herself up and releases all of her character’s emotions. It is a profoundly sad moment as a couple who seemingly love one another are forced apart.
Antadze’s Francis is understated and authentic as he endeavours to portray a man whose life has been completely upended by the effects of climate change. He is able to achieve a feeling of quiet melancholy with his character without ever verging on self-pity, and it is his advice and experience that allow Laura to see the childishness of Ellis’ character.
The long-reaching effects of the play’s events are explained by Ted Ackery and Ben Pearson, who play the elder versions of Francis and Ellis. Ackery’s Francis seems more tense and pained than Antadze’s – a clever and subtle choice which depicts how many years of living with the crisis have affected his character. He chastises and questions Pearson’s elder version of Ellis, who seemingly has not changed at all. Pearson mirrors Vogels’ constant holding of himself and, in doing so, demonstrates the continued vulnerability of his character. He continues to grieve for his mother as he chokes up at the mention of her death and is unable to move out from the shadow that it casts over him.
Whilst their narrator-style characters add an interesting view into the lives of Ellis and Francis in the past, it may have been more interesting to see a range of how their choices have affected them in the present – perhaps even with the inclusion of a present-day Laura. Indeed, while no fault of their own, the play’s characters could have done with more time to build characterization and further endear themselves to the audience.
No Place Called Home is an impressive piece of theatre that explores complex and interesting subject matter in an incredibly short amount of time. It is a play wonderfully designed by Emilie Noël and interestingly written and directed by Elder – a fringe debut for Third Culture Productions to be proud of!
Impressive Piece of Theatre
Review by Gabriel Rogers (contact@corrblimey.uk)
Gabriel is an English Literature student at the University of Edinburgh heading into his final year of studies, where he has been involved in multiple dramatic productions. Whilst he has loved working on plays by Ibsen and Shakespeare, his favourite has been performing in Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe. Gabriel’s dramatic interests are broad, and he hopes that his own theatrical experiences will aid him in his role as a reviewer. He is extremely excited to see all that the festival has to offer, be that new writing, improv or whatever absurd performances he can find
