'Heart Wall' review — family drama, grief and pub karaoke collide in this new play

Read our review of Kit Withington’s Heart Wall, now in performances at the Bush Theatre to 16 May.

Summary

• Kit Withington's play Heart Wall premieres at the Bush Theatre
• The story sees Franky returning home to her family and local pub
• The compelling cast includes Rowan Robinson as Franky
• A fun framing device features pub karaoke

There is an exuberant pre-show setup for Kit Withington’s play Heart Wall, in which audience members have a chance to belt their favourite numbers by Shania Twain, Robbie Williams, S Club 7, et al. The setting is The Sun Inn, a neighbourhood pub that hasn’t run as efficiently since its long-serving landlady Eileen had to retire due to dementia.

Withington, a former member of the Bush’s Emerging Writers’ Group, has written a play that is character-driven but in need of further refinement and definition. Katie Greenall’s production also lacks sufficient drive to make the mundane-cum-tragic events sufficiently compelling.

Franky (Rowan Robinson), a recent graduate who has a flat in London with her boyfriend Alfie and a job in an office near Buckingham Palace, returns home to the north of England for the weekend without notifying her parents. Everything at home is just as it was, except that her parents’ relationship is more strained than ever and her rabbit Paul Scholes (it’s a ginger bunny – quite rare, apparently) is missing. It’s her first visit in over a year and, come Sunday afternoon, she doesn’t have any intention of leaving.

Franky’s parents Dez (Deka Walmsley) and Linda (Sophie Stanton) have a troubled marriage, having endured a terrible tragedy before Franky’s birth. Linda has embarked on a relationship with a colleague with Dez’s knowledge and Dez is making a habit of scalding himself in hot baths. Even with his fragile mental health, it’s questionable as to why Dez doesn’t tell Franky that he has rehomed Paul Scholes and put an end to her fruitless search (sadly, an indoor rabbit wouldn’t survive any length of time on its own).

We don’t gain any insight into what has gone wrong with Franky’s relationship and job in London, or the nature of Dez’s relationship with the unseen Eileen. It’s convenient that there don’t seem to be any other customers in the pub whenever the arguments take place. Designer Hazel Low provides a detailed set design, though there isn’t much to distinguish between the pub and Franky’s family home.

The production is solidly performed and Robinson brings a compellingly mendacious quality to Franky, who has a keen sense of superiority to those she left behind when she went to university. Her childhood best friend Charlene (Olivia Forrest), who has been employed as a childcare worker since she was 16, and Eileen’s grandson Valentine (Aaron Anthony), who is keeping the pub running, are satellites for Franky’s self-absorption, with her assumption that neither is ambitious or has moved on with their lives since she left.

The karaoke framing device adds little to the theatricality or the themes of the play, aside from briefly providing a moment of mother/daughter bonding. Dez remarks that every night is karaoke time at The Sun Inn, so it’s no longer an occasion (it used to be a sing-song in which everyone would join in and there was no need for mics or screens). It all needs a stronger pulse and bloodflow to make for compelling drama.

Heart Wall is at the Bush Theatre to 16 May. Book Heart Wall tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Heart Wall (Photos by Harry Elletson)