Vermin | Park Theatre

A play with a title like Vermin ought to make it clear that its audience is not in for an easy ride. All the more so when its content warnings include violence, animal abuse, suicide, stillbirth and discussion of mental illness.

Anyone who did happen to wander into Triptych Theatre’s Vermin unaware would be disabused of any comforting notions in the opening scene. Billy (played by writer Benny Ainsworth) and Rachel (Sally Paffett) meet on a train. But not just any train, a train which has ground to a halt due to a suicide attempt. While other passengers’ reactions range from sympathy to frustration, Rachel and Billy are united in a gleeful voyeurism that makes it clear they are perfect for each other. 

They fall in love, marry, and move into their dream home. But the dream quickly becomes a nightmare as the home is infested with rats, animals which provoke very different reactions from Rachel and Billy, and bring trauma and obsession to the surface. 

Paffett and Ainsworth perform in a rapid back and forth, interrupting and critiquing each other’s delivery. It is clear that they are aware they are being watched, the fourth wall is repeatedly broken with intense eye contact and asides to the audience. Given the disturbing events being depicted onstage, this recognition that they are performing for a crowd serves to further unsettle rather than to break the tension. 

Little has been done to dress Park Theatre’s black-box Park90 space for the piece, with Vermin relying on lighting from Alex Lewer, sound from Ben Sorab, but above all the performances of Paffett and Ainsworth, ably directed by Michael Parker, to tell the story. This by no means detracts from the piece, indeed it allows the audience to watch these two exceptional performers more closely and to construct images in their own heads of the horrifying events being described.

Deeply unsettling and claustrophobic, Vermin is not for the faint-hearted. But those who can withstand the dark themes will leave irrevocably changed by the performances and the story.

Vermin runs at Park Theatre until 20 September, and can also be watched as a double bill with (God Save My) Northern Soul for a discounted price.

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★★★★★ (5*)

Gifted tickets in return for an honest review | Photography by Michael Parker