REVIEW: WASTED by Kae Tempest at Jack Studio Theatre until 3 December 2022

‘Energy and Focus’ ★★★★

It’s a sort of homecoming for Kae Tempest at The Brockley Jack Theatre as their 2013 play Wasted is performed in their ‘local’. Tempest is a ferocious talent - a poet, a writer, a terrific live performer - and thus it is timely to re-visit their first play almost 10 years since its inception and on the back of last year’s Paradise at The National Theatre (a play which didn’t wholly work for me despite a powerhouse performance from the great Lesley Sharp).

The chameleon-like theatre studio is all ‘flat’ and black and sparse but, gradually, we will see a microphone, a guitar, a keyboard, a drum kit and more added to facilitate the final ‘performance’. For, this being a Kae Tempest piece, Wasted is a myriad of sounds and textures - there is of course poetry, musical performance and straight acting. If, ultimately, the parts are perhaps somewhat greater than the whole, this is a complex rumination on life, death, dreams, mistakes and taking chances - or not.

Three long-term but lapsed friends now in their mid-twenties - Danny & Charlotte (a couple - well, sort of) plus Temi - meet to mark the anniversary of old friend Tony’s passing. They meet at a tree planted in his name - cue lots of overt and more subtle references to growth / stagnation. We don’t know why or how he died young, but it matters not - his death is the catalyst that gives energy and focus to the writing and thus the performances.

We see Charlotte - a wholly believable Isabella Verrico - a teacher who sees herself becoming her Nan but still wants to party and has an ‘on, off and on’ again relationship with Peckham-partying Danny (Ted Reilly) who is the epitome of ‘getting it wrong when trying to get it right’. In reality, their relationship is fairly standard stuff, and the greater interest lies in Temi (a mature and multi-layered performance from Seraphina Beh) who wants to escape the mundanity of work and life. They come together, they drink, they smoke, they bicker, and the writing is pretty sharp, but we’ve maybe heard and seen lots of this before and - for example in Tyrell Williams’ recent play at The Bush Theatre, Red Pitch - it has been done better. It is at times too earnest, and I would have liked more humour and modern references to give it a greater sense of time and place.

What elevates Wasted is, in fact, the smart and precise direction by Toby Clarke and the performance of Beh. In a change from the original version, Tony is given life. He starts on stage fiddling with a guitar and, slowly, he creates a bandstand for his ‘moment’ at the end which is nicely lit and defined. As Tony, Ruaridh Mollica interjects, comments and has a splendid range of facial expression to help move the action on and whilst his final performance perhaps doesn’t quite hit the vocal heights to deliver a soaring finale, it brings the story together and to a poignant close.

WASTED by Kae Tempest & Directed by Toby Clarke

22nd November – 3rd December at 7.30pm

Produced by MICA Theatre

Venue: Brockley 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)

Reviewer:  Paul Maidment

Paul had a long career at the BBC where he ran a number of commercial / digital businesses and he now consults to the creative content sector. His love of theatre came from his wife whom he met at university and he has been attending shows ever since. In 2021/22 Paul was a member of The Olivier Awards public panel which re-enforced his belief in theatre as the most exciting and engrossing cultural medium.