REVIEW: HAVE I NONE by Edward Bond at Golden Goose Theatre 24 – 28 Jan 2023

‘I have a chair, and it is mine’ ★★★

‘Gold and silver have I none’ is the lyric, but Edward Bond’s dystopian horror show of a future, does not complete the sentiment: ‘But what I have I give thee’. It’s as if amputating the warm, generous half of the line hurtles us into the grotesque way that ‘life without justice, but with law’ (Bond) can descend. This is fascist dictatorship in its extreme, leaving the married couple in a relationship in its extreme, tellingly squabbling over the minuscule.

After a performance of heavily committed energy, I left thinking it was watchable, but sadly lacking in the dark humour that could have made this compelling theatre, allowing the dangerous undertow to terrify an audience. Bond himself, said in an interview, that after reading the play after all these years, found himself laughing!

Brad Leigh, as Jams, never let up in his excessive delivery. Abigail Stone, his longsuffering wife, Sara, showed good nuanced work, but it was left to Paul Brayward, as Grit, to capture the zeitgeist in his quietly believable performance. Director, Lewis Frost, showed a deft hand in managing the visual possibilities the almost bare stage and props gave him. Sound and lighting operated by Rachel Schofield did its job.

As it is a privilege to see the work of the genius that is Edward Bond, it is certainly worth seeing this piece.

Presented by Four Points Theatre

HAVE I NONE by Edward Bond at Golden Goose Theatre

24 – 28 Jan 2023 7.30pm

Box Office https://www.goldengoosetheatre.co.uk/have-i-none

Reviewer Saul Reichlin is an actor, writer and multi-award winning audiobook narrator. For many years he was official reviewer for www.chicagocritic.com and remotegoat. (Both of these no longer take reviews)