TG Presents Big Big Sky: Review – A soaring play about love and loss
LUU’s Theatre Group Society (TG) have always impressed me when I attend their productions. Their interpretation of Tom Wells’ Big Big Sky is no different.
The play boils down to four key elements: love, bird watching, grief and, ultimately, what can grow from it. The layers are slowly unravelled into a heart warming tale as the play takes several turns before reaching its emotional climax. This is carried out by the four characters; Angie (played by Imogen Clawson), Dennis (played by Harrison Mole), Lauren (played by Phoebe Nichols), and Ed (played by Liam Gilmore). All of whom delivered fantastic performances.
Taking place over a year, and set in Kilnsea, a coastal village found in East Yorkshire. Tourists and Birdwatchers visit in the hopes of snapping photos until the birds fly south when the seasons change. Angie runs a cafe which Lauren works at through spring-autumn and packing up for winter. The play takes place entirely within the cafe, all events that occur outside of it are discussed in a past tense, or are revealed within the cafe’s walls. The set design again was spot on, it felt as though we were in a greasy spoon.
Things are flipped on their head with the sudden, and chaotic, arrival of Ed, a young man who is visiting for an interview for his dream job as a tern warden in Kilnsea. Ed’s bookish demeanour changes the lives and outlooks of everyone involved.
The story, as mentioned, has emotional depth. with a fractured relationship between Lauren and Dennis after the death of Lauren’s mother. Dennis’ performance in particular shines, he plays the role with humour that can suddenly twist into tense moments at the drop of a hat, that impacts all characters, before he finally shows how he too, is grieving the loss of Lauren’s mother. This leaves Lauren to often be forced into building the bridge with her father as he spirals in his grief, picking up pastimes that surprise the characters, such as Birdwatching.
As Ed, Gilmore infuses a fantastic level of awkwardness into the role that often makes you cringe, in the best way – he feels like an actual person as opposed to someone playing a character, his awkward nature is charming. Ed grows with the change in seasons as he and Lauren discover their common ground, with both of their mothers having passed. There is an awkwardness to their romance that captures the early stages of a relationship.
When Lauren and Ed fall in love and begin to welcome a new life into the world, Angie delivers her lines perfectly with the reveal that she is still mourning the loss of her child from 20 years ago. This moment in particular stood out to me, the quiet grief of the moment, the subtlety of the performance reflected the real-life version of informing someone that they have experienced a devastating loss so well.
The play could not have happened without the directors Indigo, Ben and Ella who were able to get the absolute best out of the cast. Big Big Sky was a pleasure to watch. The play is a touching tribute to the idea of grief, and how to move past it, the stubborn refusal to let it define oneself. My hat goes off to TG, as it always seems to do when I have the privilege of attending their shows.