Review: Cleansed – Almeida Theatre, London

Great works achieve the impossible by treading that fine line between truth and contradiction — works that make you laugh as well as cry, that make you think thoughts you never could before, that make you feel desperately with every fibre in your being something you can never describe. To achieve any of these, a play must be ambitious, but not every ambitious play is a great one, and many fail in treading that line; this new production of Sarah Kane’s Cleansed is an instructive example.

So writes Harry Conway for theQR.co.uk…

(Editor’s Note: We have chosen not to apply a star rating to this production)

It’s hard to give much of a premise for the story, as much of what happens can’t be made sense of in any traditional narrative sense. We have characters such as Tinker (Leo Bill), a man who holds some position of authority in the play’s vaguely medical setting, where he holds power of life and death over what might be called his ‘patients’, such as Grace (Pearl Chanda) and Carl (Luke Cinque-White). This world is brought to life in a gloriously beige, dread-inducing set designed by Madeleine Girling.

Grace and Carl are highlighted here as their suffering is the main focus of the play; Tinker and his unseen orderlies regularly beat, disfigure, and sexually degrade both of them for purposes that remain vague and cruel throughout.

Narrative Cruelty and Unrelenting Sadism

Things begin already fairly cold and unpleasant, with Grace forcing another patient, Robin (Stuart Thompson), to strip so she can take his clothes and feel closer to her dead brother, Graham (Jack Riddiford). Meanwhile, Carl is introduced to us through a playful dialogue with his commitment-phobic partner, Rod (Parth Thakerar), in the only scene with any heart before the blood bags start bursting.

Almost every kind of horrible object you can think of is eventually used on the delicate parts of someone’s body, and the misery and torture of it all naturally leaves the audience searching for a purpose or meaning. Unfortunately, Director Rebecca Frecknall doesn’t seem to have one in mind beyond making it clear that Tinker—and by extension his breed of authoritative establishment figure—is willing to break these people rather than leave them be. What’s worse is that the unrelenting sadism of the production leaves it entirely one-note; you’d be surprised how boring or even comedic violence becomes when the subject has already lost their tongue, hands, and feet (oh no, not again!).

Spectacle, Stagecraft, and Standout Ensemble

Frecknall makes big efforts throughout for the sake of spectacle, with one particular moment involving the reveal of a field of flowers stealing the spotlight about halfway through. However, while most of the moments of violence are well-executed technically, some of them surprisingly lacked teeth, and the related effects and stagecraft could often feel undercooked. Additionally, the scenes of nudity, prominent throughout, are especially spoiled by the approach chosen for cast mics. Actors have large bandages over their lower chest, often breaking the illusion of the whole scene in what should have been absorbing moments of vulnerability.

Where Frecknall can be commended is the committed performances she guides from a seriously strong ensemble, with the physicality of every actor (but especially Cinque-White and Thakerar) often arresting, and the emotional range of Pearl Chanda excellent throughout. This play will prove immediately divisive among any group of two or more people, but the power of these performers cannot be overstated, even if the narrative they serve here fails to be worthy of their talents.

Featured Image: Almeida Theatre_Cleansed_Pearl Chanda_Credit. Marc Brenner

To learn more about Cleansed or to book tickets, click here: https://almeida.co.uk/whats-on/cleansed/