The true weight of Dead Centre, the piece Red Stitch commissioned Tom Holloway to write as a companion to Simon Stephens' Sea Wall, does not fully hit you until the latter play, performed second, is finished. Both pieces address permeating grief, and the manifestations of grief.
In Dead Centre, Helen (Rosie Lockhart) suddenly decides to move from England to Australia. She signs up for a tour to Uluru, but during the trip suffers a breakdown; unspoken questions about injustice, fate and spirituality arise.
Sea Wall expands on those themes. It follows the husband Helen left behind, Alex, played brilliantly by Ben Prendergast; it is here we learn much more about Helen's character and what she was trying to escape from. Prendergast somehow manages to speak about happy memories with a twinkle in his eye, while simultaneously emanating thick layers of sorrow, emptiness and simmering agony. Stephens' candid monologue is disarming, painting us a picture of domestic and familial contentedness, lulling us into a false sense of security, before demolishing it all, slowly and painfully. It's heart-stopping stuff, and the gentle and considered direction from Julian Meyrick, Matthew Adey's subdued lighting design, Katie Cavanagh's atmospheric projections, and Ian Moorhead's subtle sound design add texture to the solid scripts and performances.
