Shannon Tarbet and Alfie Jones
(Picture: Johan Persson)Take a deep breath: Naomi Wallace’s queasily efficient play is an indictment of neoliberalist economics cloaked in a depiction of toxic masculinity. It takes place in an imaginary, almost mythologised version of Kentucky in 1977 and 1991, and hinges on a sexual assault, exploring the way power and poverty skew the idea of consent.
While I admire Wallace’s thinking, and the remorseless way it dictates her narrative, on an emotional level I didn’t believe the play at all. You can almost hear the gears grind as Sarah Frankcom’s production approaches each new twist in the plot.
