Parlour Song | Greenwich Theatre

In typical Jez Butterworth fashion, the audience is unaware that they are watching a biting and devastating event unfold as the play is an endless well of not just sorrow, but humor as well. This script is packed with wall-to-wall double meanings. Every line is a landmine, expertly navigated by actors who understood how to walk the thin line between comedy and drama.

While the drama boils beneath the surface of the play, Butterworth keeps a tight lid on it, creating a pressure cooker that never quite boils over. On the surface, this play is about an affair between two people who live in nearly identical houses. But, as is central to the message of the play, the surface is meaningless. This play, much like the houses in which these characters live and the relationships they inhabit, is all about the small cracks in things. These small cracks in the foundation—both physical and metaphorical—are what make our homes and relationships crumble. True destruction is not explosive—like our protagonist’s job as a demolition expert—but made possible through small and persistent weaknesses and fissures in the structures in our lives.

Making this metaphor most clear was the incredible scenic and costume design by Emily Bestow. The actors move about on a stage that has been transformed into a giant housing blueprint—sometimes with projected cracks, sometimes not—dressed in all blue to blend with the world around them, essentially making them a part of the crumbling house.

However, the standout of the evening was the directing by James Haddrell. It was clear that Haddrell went through the script with surgical precision to draw out every possible meaning from every moment. The subtlety of Butterworth’s script is such that a lesser director could have easily overlooked every golden nugget that Haddrell unearthed.

However, what was most surprising about Parlour Song was the brevity of the script and the several moments of logical flaws in the script. As a multi-award winning playwright, Butterworth has set a high standard and garnered himself a reputation for his lyrical and nuanced writing. However, for every gorgeous moment of flowery language or cutting double entendre, there was an equally as confusing plot hole, unmotivated monologue, or logical flaw.

All of that said, Parlour Song is worth the watch. If you need an excuse to attend a show at the beautiful Greenwich Theatre, here it is.

★★★★☆ (4*)

Gifted tickets in return for an honest review | Photography by Danny Kaan