REVIEW: SAP by Rafaella Marcus at Soho Playhouse 3 – 22 April 2023

‘densely packed, thought-provoking drama’ ★★★★

In ‘Sap’, we are greeted by the lush sounds of nature, the whoop and call of birdsong (probably mating) and the haze of dry ice. Upstairs at the Soho Theatre, the floor is transformed into a reflective black lake and the dark immersive setting prepares the audience to be drawn into this contemporary tale of sexuality, love, deceit and power.

The self-assured debut by Raphaella Marcus, slickly directed by Jessica Lazar is a modern romance that morphs into a sinister psychological drama, A well-paced, seventy minutes with no interval, it covers lots of narrative ground and the text conveys both inner and outer character worlds with humour, emotion and depth.

Jessica Clark plays Daphne, the narrator and protagonist with confident delivery and self-deprecating wryness. She speaks directly to the audience, traverse-style, addressing one side then the other, and draws you in to her account with direct eye contact and friendly address. Clark’s character Daphne works for the social media account of a domestic abuse women’s charity; a tough call and not everyone’s first choice for a light-hearted scroll.

Daphne also enjoys sexual and romantic encounters with men and women. On the back of a work event, she has a one-night stand with ‘some guy.’  Easy come, easy go. Shortly afterwards, she meets ‘The Goddess’, the woman of her dreams, “lipstick on a hammer”, surrounded by adoring acolytes like “hunting dogs” and this is the start of something beautiful and complicated. But one thing threatens the new relationship. The Goddess is biphobic and can’t cope with women who can’t “make up their minds.”

Performer, Rebecca Banatvala, skillfully multi-roles as work colleague, girlfriend and guy. There’s a real symbiotic energy between the two performers who can with the flex of their bodies, or a single expression convey passion, fear, disappointment or distance.

The name ‘Daphne’ comes from the nymph in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, who, hotly pursued by Apollo, turns into a tree. In Sap, the silent lie takes root in Daphne’s subconscious and psyche until she too starts to turn into a tree with “bark like eczema.” As her relationship develops, the lie grows, and the stakes rise. The conceptual basis of this narrative also brings to mind the prose works of South Korean author, Han Kang. The Fruit of My Woman and The Vegetarian, tell of a young woman who, as a way to cope with a hostile environment and patriarchy, transforms into a plant. The arboreal language used in Sap to describe the growth of the tree that takes hold of Daphne’s body is poetic and entrancing.

All the well-rounded characters in ‘Sap’ test the audience’s capacity for sympathy. The guy is a bore, the Goddess intolerant and Daphne lacks courage. But at the heart of this play is the start of a conversation about bisexual Identity. We learn that within relationships, bisexual women are statistically more likely to be abused. Despite these non-binary days of gender fluidity and twenty shades of gay, bisexual women can still be on the receiving end of discrimination not only from the heteronormative world but their own LGBTQ+ communities.

Fresh from a critically acclaimed run at Edinburgh and with The Plaines Plough, Marcus’s debut is also a Soho Playhouse winner of Excellence in Theatre. Sap is an enlightening, thought provoking drama that explores with maturity the nature of trust, truth, control and cohesion as well as the complexities of contemporary relationships.

Photos by David Monteith-Hodge

SAP

BY RAFAELLA MARCUS

Directed by Jessica Lazar

Mon 3 – Sat 22 Apr 2023 3.00pm, 7.00pm

Box Office https://sohotheatre.com/shows/sap-by-rafaella-marcus/

Reviewed by Nilgin Yusuf