Afterplay at the Sheffield Studio Review
Afterplay
Studio, Sheffield
6 February to 1 March 2014
Reviewed by Sarah King
Sheffield’s landmark theatre, the Crucible, a regional powerhouse for quality drama, is currently putting on a season of works by Ireland’s greatest living writer Brian Friel. Currently showing Translations and Afterplay, with Wonderful Tennessee to follow, the artistic director hopes to showcase the broader themes that run through Friel’s work and bring his talents as a theatrical innovator to even wider acclaim.
Going to the Crucible is always a pleasure, with its progressive architecture, smart bar and an atmosphere which feels simultaneously grown up and anarchic. Afterplay was showing in The Studio, the crucible’s second theatre space, which is a really charming and intimate space that brings you right into the heart of the stories told there.
The play itself is a character study, taking two arguably minor characters from Chehkov’s seminal plays Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters and resetting them 20 years after their first ‘appearance’ in the Moscow of the 1920s. It is a play ‘after ‘ a play. A story about the small lives the exist on the peripheries of large dramas and which continue to exist, and play out, after the main show is over. It is the poignant story of an imagined meeting between Sonya (Uncle Vanya’s dutiful niece who has dedicated her life to running an estate that is no longer able to support her, and a man that has never truly loved her) and Andrey (the black sheep of the Three Sisters, whose academic promise and ‘effervescence’ has been squandered on a failed marriage and alcoholism). Over their shared and boozy meal, we learn of their histories as established by Chekhov, witness their failings as adults and hear their fears for the future both facing ‘a tundra of loneliness’.
It was a genuine pleasure to watch two skilled and experienced actors as Niamh Cusack and Sean Gallagher bring the characters to vodka-fuelled life. Whilst we weren’t dazzled by this play, we were left feeling nourished by a highly intelligent and well executed piece of theatre. It left us wanting to know about, and go to see more of Friel’s work.
Grab tickets while you can for a show that runs until 1 March, and a season that runs until 8 March.
Rating: 4/5
Tickets cost from £15-£18 (plus booking fee).
For more information or to book tickets click here or call the box office on 0114 249 6000.
