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Review by Emma Whitelaw
IF THERE was ever any reason for retribution, the murder of one’s
child is surely a just one.
Graham Farrow’s Talk About the Passion,
now showing at the New End Theatre, is a gripping
drama that tells the story of one man’s desperate attempt
to seek revenge on the killer of his six-year-old son and the
woman who made his killer a celebrity.
Following the brutal murder of his only child, Jason Carroway,
played by the ever so talented Daniel Ainsleigh, is forced to
endure the media hype surrounding the release of a best selling
non-fiction written by none other than his son’s murderer.
The death of a loved one is enough to endure in itself, let
alone knowing that people are actually making a profit from it.
Needless to say, the distraught father is mentally tested by
the events surrounding the loss of his child.
His wife not only blames him but also leaves him. He loses everything
and turns to writing as a form of therapy.
Jason takes his novel, written under a nom de plume, to the very
same publisher as that which made the killer famous - a Ms Evelyn
Ayles.
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Phillipa Peak is stunning as Ms Ayles.
A nasty piece of work, she is cold, brash and will do anything
for a bestseller, hence her involvement with a killer’s
harrowing story.
She is obviously only in it for the money. To her, success is
everything, even to the detriment of her own marriage. She is
lonely and heartless; Jason’s story is of no consequence
to her – but he soon makes her listen.
It’s payback time and Jason hijacks Ms Ayles' office. Locking
the door and keeping the key he takes to her like a madman. At
first, he grapples her to the floor and chokes her, then he douses
her in petrol and threatens her with a lighter.
Most would crack under such circumstances, but not Ms Ayles!
Being the strong woman that she is, she does not take any of it
lying down; she fights back with brute force.
At first, it is physical, but when that doesn’t work she
uses her best defense – mind games and manipulation.
She convinces her attacker that she is onside and lures him into
a plot that can only be described as undeniably evil.
With a sharp sting in its tail, the play’s conclusion sees
revenge in all forms. I won’t say how, just that everyone
gets theirs… some more than others!
Talk About The Passion by Graham Farrow. Directed by
Darren Tunstall, designed by Michael Taylor, Lighting by Peter
Harrison. Starring Daniel Ainsleigh and Phillipa Peak. September
1 to 18 at The New End Theatre, 27 New End London NW3 1JD. Box
Office 0870 033 2733. |
