Review: Six Lips Theatre, Person In Law, Friargate Theatre, York, last Friday to Sunday (From York Press)

Review: Six Lips Theatre, Person In Law, Friargate Theatre, York, last Friday to Sunday

9:19am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Theatre

YORK company Six Lips Theatre presented Matt Harper’s new play Person In Law at Friargate Theatre last weekend.

Written for five actors, the piece focuses – fairly originally – on genetic sexual attraction, a phenomenon which can occur between estranged siblings.

The script itself is a credit to Harper’s ability as a playwright in most respects, but I’m still wondering why this wasn’t presented as a realist piece.

The second act descended into essentially a series of monologues – and throughout there was a strong sense of the meta-theatrical about proceedings.

If it’s an issue play, why is there a need to distance the audience? It just seems counter-intuitive, as if the writer has attacked the subject matter – which is well chosen and fertile – from the wrong angle, making it less accessible.

The acting was generally of a good quality, with Wayne Ewart standing out as particularly adept; the support of Harper’s good direction was also clear.

The moments of film were a nice touch, and handled artistically – although the ‘chapters’, with titled Rorschach images acting as a backdrop for each scene, eventually became repetitive and more time-consuming than they should have been.

This was representative of a more general problem: the production needed to be trimmed. Anna Rogers’ character, Them, for example, could have been cut from the play with almost no detriment.

Overall more interesting than well thought-out, Person In Law succeeded in highlighting the phenomenon of genetic sexual attraction, even if the discussion was not particularly profound.

Review by James Harle