Unravel

CCA, Glasgow, Thu 26–Sat 28 Jun

NEW PLAY

Director Peter Lamb was cautious when he heard actor Mark Tominey’s idea. Could a show work in which the audience saw not only the characters but also the characters’ subtexts – their inner thoughts – fleshed out as real people? Lamb was worried about denying the audience the pleasure of figuring out for themselves the difference between what a character says and what he means.

But then something curious happened as he and the actors of Glasgow’s Stark Theatre went into the rehearsal room to devise Unravel. ‘Because we have physicalised the thoughts and because actors are playing them, the thoughts are taking on a life of their own,’ he says. ‘On some occasions, the thoughts are taking higher status than the characters who they are related to. It’s turned into something quite interesting.’

On a less mind-boggling level, Unravel is about a family that has lost the ability to communicate as a result of the death of a daughter five years earlier. ‘Each character is failing to cope with that and failing to connect with the others,’ says Lamb. ‘It has a linear narrative but a lot of nightmarish elements creep in as well.’

More: Theatre, Previews (Theatre), Mark Tominey, New Play, Peter Lamb, Stark Theatre, Unravel

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