“I don’t like
thinking, I don’t like thinking…but I do it all the time.”
Catherine Lamb hits us with everything she’s got for a
well over an hour, giving us a whirlwind of powerful, teenage narrative
including fighting, a car chase, school disco and sexual power play. She brings
Jack Thorne's meticulous prose to life: 70 minutes of dialogue, one woman,
three clouds and a battered chair… it is an amazing performance you are
consumed by her energy and emotive force and you are left reeling by a
cliff-hanger ending I won’t reveal.
Bunny tells the
story of Katie, 18-year old school girl, bright enough to get A’s in her GCSEs
and in her AS “ass-levels” and the first in her family to get a place in
university. Her parents read The Guardian and she is almost at Grade Five on
the clarinet. She’s what we used to call working class but her future awaits
even though she’s by no means sure of it.
Katie doesn’t quite fit in with the fast set at school,
all of the girls who came to her 18th decided to leave on cue at
10.30 as some kind of statement… she’s too off-beat to really hold down a
position in their ranks and had only one real friend and overweight girl she
was ashamed of but who liked and understood her.
Katie’s boyfriend – she’s ambivalent on his status – is a
24-yeard old black guy called Abe who even now was a shock to her parents and
no doubt many others. He works in a factory and seems distinctly un-invested in
Katie’s opinions and personality. The couple meet after her day at school and Abe
gets into a fight with an Asian boy who tries to nick his ice cream.
 |
| Catherine Lamb, photograph Michael Lindall |
Two of Abe’s workmates have seen the scuffle, a man
called Jake and the commanding figure of Asif, a man they all defer to and who
seems to take an interest in Katie from the start. Asif is a compelling character
as drawn by Catherine/Katie: he drives a fast car, takes command and plays
subtle games with all of those around him.
He decides that they must pursue the boy – who spat at
Abe to start the quarrel – and to meet out justice. They set off in his car
playing tag with the boy as he cycles down passageways but can’t get far enough
away. He gets cornered and manages to give the gang a slip as a young boy
distracts them… Asif then puts pressure on the boy to let them know his name
and where he lives… it’s uncomfortable even in the re-telling and we’re lost in
Catherine Lamb’s story telling feeling the fear and threat.
The pack head off to Luton’s Bury Park and after Asif
finds out where the boy lives they sit outside in his car eating a kebab. Asif
plays all those around him including Katie who, childlike, responds to his
attentions as she would anyone who gave her the compliment of simply being
interested. We’re appalled that she is in this situation, “I know what I’m
doing…” but she really does not.
The tension mounts as they go inside the boy’s house to
sit and wait with his unsuspecting mother… Katie must decide who’s side she is
on, Asif’s or her own: it’s a difficult choice to make and, given that she is
telling the story, one we presume she has already made?
 |
| A clouded future? Catherine Lamb, photograph Michael Lindall |
Catherine Lamb is so cohesive and committed to the
performance that you believe her every word. In the end we’re left hanging on to
each sentence… hoping for the best and recognising the terrible ease with which
young lives can turn.
“I think life can be basically divided into two things:
suspense and surprise. I prefer surprise to suspense. But that’s basically
because I feel suspense all the time.”
Bunny is a production of Fabricate Theatre Company and runs at the Tristan Bates Theatre until 27th
January – so yourself a favour and grab a ticket whilst you can!
IThankYouTheatre
Rating: ***** Breathless.
No comments:
Post a Comment