REVIEW: ONE MINUTE by Simon Stephens at King’s Head Theatre 20-26 March 2023

‘it is sometimes the one who bears the most who becomes the strongest’ ★★★

So many things can take place in a minute. In Simon Stephen’s One Minute, that 60 seconds is about the abduction of a child. This isn’t a spoiler. From almost the beginning, we realize that something is awry.

Really, the play is peripherally about the abduction, and more about the aftermath. Five characters have varying connections with the central character, Daisy, who is already gone as the play begins. Her mother, Anne (Reshma Morris) displays a tempered and deep sorrow which doesn't go into melodrama; yet there is a seething anger that she unleashes at the appropriate moment. The two detectives (Lee Lomas, Frederik Lysegaard) who work closely with her, seem to hold the key to the story. They see the seedy and dark parts of London, while also working through those parts within themselves. They are also working out what they want from life and their relationships while putting in long hours of working on this case.

Marie Louise (Imogen Davis), a possible witness to the crime, gives a certain (‘comic’ doesn’t seem quite right) relief to the pain displayed, though she possesses her own anxieties. At one point, she comes clean about herself, admitting that her previously proclaimed ambition of taking singing lessons and doing some writing was never going to happen. As she looks for purpose, her incredible privilege is in contrast to Catherine (Imogen Mackenzie), who works in a bar to put herself through school. For a time, they share Marie Louise’s extravagant flat and the difference in her privilege and their two life experiences is put into stark contrast. One has to have sympathy for the hardworking Catherine, the least connected to lost child Daisy, and it would have been good to learn more about her. Alas, she seems to be more of a sounding board for the other characters in the play.

Using simple staging, just two tables at opposite ends of the stage, some chairs, and lots of cups of coffee and tea, this production takes on a heavy topic and intersperses it with other ones. The work connects the characters loosely, all by some level of grief. Each character has their hangups and their fears. Only Anne has had to face up to one of the greatest ones in this life and comes out a bit better for it. Perhaps this is the real lesson: it is sometimes the one who bears the most who becomes the strongest.

ONE MINUTE by Simon Stephens

King’s Head Theatre 20-26 March 2023

Performed by Imogen Davis, Lee Lomas, Frederik Lysegaard, Imogen Mackenzie, Reshma Morris

Directed by Demi Leigh

Produced by Working Actors Studio

Twitter: @WASLdn

Reviewed by Mariam Mathew