Lost Atoms - A Northern Theatre Review

York Theatre Royal is roughly an hour from home, and for some reason I had ocular leakage all the way back. I’m still dealing with L.A.R.L.S. (Lost Atoms Related Lachrymosity Syndrome) even now I’m ensconced at my laptop..

That’s probably my only attempt at humour in this review.

It’s just not that sort of play.

So, what sort of play is it?

It’s a memory play, a two-hander, from the excellent team at Frantic Assembly (most notable for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and it’s their 30th Anniversary production) that examines a relationship, beginnings, up and downs, trauma, agonies, loss and endings.

The first act establishes our two leads, Hannah Sinclair Robinson as Jess, and Joe Layton as Robbie, who meet-cute in a coffee shop over a shared Wi-Fi connection and rejected doughnut.

Though, as this is a memory play, the action isn’t linear and occasionally pauses whilst a character queries the other’s recollection of how, where and when something happened. It’s an incredibly effective technique to examine how we so often base our decisions on what we perceive as objective realities on the shifting sands of subjective memories.

It’s touring - see it!

This chance encounter isn’t the obvious start to their tale though, as Robbie runs from the potential connection, scared of… well, everything. A second chance encounter at a station, and Robbie makes amends, mostly, and dating ensues for the chalk-n-cheese couple who seem destined to be together.

There’s a fairy tale thread introduced here too. Jess is studying how fairy tales get sanitised by retelling. Their relationship runs in reverse. It starts with the sparkle of once upon a time and grows darker as life intrudes.

And, that’s not to say they don’t have their share of initial baggage, they have a lost luggage office full of it; parents, exes, careers - lack thereof, grief, you name it there’s a tote bag full of it weighing them down. Actually, everything is kept in a drawer rather than bagged - more of that in a mo.

What they do have though, together, is hope.

Incredible performances

Hope that is raw, optimistic, authentic, and you feel that maybe they could make it, hope that they will make it.

But as the lights go down at the end of the first act, you just know it’s not that play.

I turned to my companion at the interval and half-jokingly asked “Can we skip the second half?“ I sensed the conclusion was going to break me.

I’m going to pause before discussing act two - I can feel the L.A.R.L.S returning.

Instead of triggering myself let’s move on to the performances, and the major challenge outside of the dramatic nuance they are asked to deliver. Namely the way that the play is staged, the set and movement through and around it requires a choreographed physicality that adds layers of intensity, but must demand such rigour in rehearsal and performance from both our leads.

They are flawless, both in dramatic intensity and movement!

And since I’ve mentioned it… the staging.

Wow!

The set is stunning

If you’ve seen The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time you’ll know that Frantic Assembly do not do standard sets or staging, Lost Atoms is no exception. We have one set, no changes save for a couple of chairs that are brought on and off by our leads as needed. That set is essentially a backdrop comprised of the world’s largest filing cabinet, and yet it is so much more than that.

The choreography is flawless

The cabinet hosts a multitude of drawers, acting as steps, seats, lights, actual drawers for clothes and for their often unreliable memories. Some of them are automated and open when needed by the action, hence why the choreography needs to be so fine-tuned. There’s also a central platform that is a second mini-stage, bed, slope, seating, and the location of one of the most visceral scenes I’ve ever seen on stage - welling up at the thought of it.

Coupled with this is a clever lighting setup that acts as a scene transition marker as well as stage lighting - it’s wonderfully illuminating in both roles. And then there’s the sound design, sparse but with subtle echoes of memories, dreams and the weight of what might have been.

So I’ll just take a moment to shout out to Andrzej Goulding for the amazing set, Simisola Majekodunmi for the incredible lighting and Carolyn Downing for the wonderful sound.

Okay, I think I’m prepared to tackle act two now.

I’d assumed we would see our leads relationship suffer stresses and strain, and ultimately crumble. I’d steeled myself during the interval for this through Tibetan meditation and a pint of Black Sheep Respire IPA.

I was ready.

I wasn’t in the slightest bit ready!

SPOILER ALERT!

There is a foreshadow moment whilst the couple are at the hospital for their pregnancy scan, but it’s just ninety seconds in advance of the truly awful reveal of their own missed miscarriage.

The conversation with the Doctors, who are not physically represented on stage, is truly heartbreaking and elicited gasps from the audience.

Those gasps were about to transform.

Jess decides she wants to go home and let her body and nature take their course…

Look, I don’t have the words to describe what women go through in these circumstances, literally I don’t know how to articulate it, every way of saying it is too clinical, cold, and doesn’t get to the visceral brutality of the experience or the emotional devastation wrought.

Google described it as ‘the body naturally expelling the tissue’, this isn’t nearly enough, doesn’t seem natural, feels inhumane, and the writer, Anna Jordan, and the director Scott Graham, know this.

So they show us in one of the most heart wrenching and overwhelming scenes I have ever seen on stage.

My interval preparations were now in tatters and no amount of Tibetan shenanigans was going to stop my sobbing.

Fortunately, my sobs just mingled with the chorus voiced from all corners of the auditorium.

It is probably clear by now that this play deeply affected me as it’s an emotional mauling that leaves you traumatised and gasping for air, in all the brilliant ways that only live theatre can deliver.

I think this is a testament to the collective elements working so well together, writing that resonates with the human condition, performances that feel authentic and staging that adds layers of nuance to what we experience.

I don’t do ⭐ ratings, but this would be nineteen and a half out of five.

The half… there are just two elements that niggled slightly.

First, the trigger warning isn’t explicit enough in my opinion, I think the brutal miscarriage could be better signposted.

Second, the very last scene has a single line of dialogue from Jess that is so devastatingly perfect that they should end on it, but they extend for one more - unneeded imho .

Truly amazing show, see it at York Theatre Royal until 11th Oct, or catch it as it tours the country - tour dates.

Lost Atoms

A Frantic Assembly Production, co-produced with Leicester Curve, Mayflower Southampton and The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre 

Cast

Hannah Sinclair Robinson 

Joe Layton 

 

Creative Team

Writer: Anna Jordan 

Director: Scott Graham 

Set Designer: Andrzej Goulding 

Lighting Designer: Simisola Majekodunmi 

Sound Designer: Carolyn Downing 

Music Supervisor: Julie Blake 

Costume Designer: Alice McNicholas 

Associate Director: Lucy Wild