REVIEW: STILL HERE by Mari Lloyd at Jack Studio Theatre 7 – 25 March 2023

‘Expectations of future fireworks’ ★★★

The Rhondda Valley. Yasmin changes school and is greeted by Rhys with a ‘yawn’. Outwardly Rhys is confident - doing all the things an 18 year old should be doing but still very much unsure about his future. Boxing provides an outlet from the drudgery of life - a father with whom he doesn’t connect and a mother who is in a care home that he cannot and will not visit.

For a while Yasmin is on the edges. She too is trying to fit in having been excluded from her previous school. She notices Rhys and then, later, stumbles across the gym where he is boxing and it’s immediately what she wants to do. For her too it is an outlet, not least as ‘she could start an argument in an empty room’ (one of a few nice lines - more please!).

What follows is, in the classic sense, a slow unravelling of themes and ideas building to a climax of sorts. Rhys will learn to ‘accept’ Yasmin in his life and this acts as a route into a greater understanding of and with his parents - especially when Yasmin begins working as a volunteer in the care home where Rhys’ mother resides.

The bare Jack Theatre stage means that the focus is wholly on the actors and the writing. Indeed, Rhys and Yasmin circle one another and speak to the audience directly which asks a lot of them - and of the audience who have to be fully engaged and to ‘care’.

Fortunately, the two young committed actors fulfil their brief. Phillip John Jones’ Rhys is all ‘wrist and hip’ swagger but with an underlying uncertainty and naivety. And there’s the anger - at one point his sense of ‘me versus them’ comes out (‘they’re all in on it’) and Jones shows that he can move through the gears of emotion whilst still thinking about the audience and their reaction to him.

Emma Kaler as Yasmin has a lovely light touch - even when swearing which her character does a lot - and she shows real confidence in her work. As a Welsh Asian it would have been interesting to more deeply explore Yasmin’s sense of belonging (or not) and the role feels slightly under-written in comparison to Rhys. Still, Kaler commits to the role and her connection to the character and to the audience helps underpin the action.

The play is neatly directed - and nicely lit - and Mari Lloyd brings her real life experience of the Rhondda and of boxing in a gym to the fore. That said, the play never quite lifts off - I found myself caring about these characters, but there is a lack of ‘depth’, and all aspects of the ending were as expected. It is, however, another piece that I could see working on a bigger, wider scale with a larger cast giving the play a chance to breathe and explore the canvas of life in the Rhondda.

Some ‘real life’ plays exude confidence from the outset through writing that is precise, nuanced and feels ‘lived’. ‘Still Here’ only occasionally reaches these heights and, if anything, feels more like an uncertain debut but there is more than enough here to have expectations of future fireworks from Mari Lloyd and her two actors.

Read our interview with playwright Mari Lloyd here

Still Here

by Mari Lloyd

Produced by 20 South Street

At Jack Studio Theatre, 410 Brockley Road, London, SE4 2DH

Box office: www.brockleyjack.co.uk  or 0333 666 3366 (£1.80 fee for phone bookings only)

Dates: Tues 7 – Saturday 25 March 2023 at 7.30pm. 

Tickets: £17, £15 conc., 14+

Running time: 75 minutes, with no interval

Cast: Rhys | Phillip John Jones

Yasmin | Emma Kaler 

Director: Julia Stubbs

Set and Costume Designer: Rachael Rooney

Lighting Designer: Jonathan Samuels

Sound Designer: Jamie Lu

Technical Operator: Charlie Heptinstall

Tech Assistant: Stuart Glover

Produced by 20 South Street in association with Still Here Productions

Reviewed by Paul Maidment