Cast: Ben Hallworth, Dale Grant, Nuala Maguire.

Perhaps the idea of admission of guilt or even worry is one step too far to cope with after a bottle of wine or two. Even the Half A Bottle Gone may be too much for some to comprehend the seriousness of a life that has been turned upside down by one moment’s indiscretion.

Half A Bottle Gone by Ian Walker deals with before and after, the moments where you blurt out a secret that has been tearing away at your soul and the moment when you first saw the life you lead turn dramatically inside out.

The three members of the cast, Ben Hallworth, Dale Grant and Nuala Macguire do very well within the confined and almost suffocating space they leave themselves on stage. The stifling atmosphere is punctuated by the admission of guilt, of being scared of the retribution that will surely follow. When you are in a position of trust such as a teacher then even the briefest, near innocent mistake could come back to haunt you.

Half A Bottle Gone is one of the plays that is part of the Queertet Festival at the Lantern Theatre and in a way the subject matter could almost be one that can sit as comfortably in a different setting as it does inside. The only difference is the anguish is sharply felt and the sympathy it generates is heightened to greater sense that the final knock on the door could almost be used as the realisation that in the end if we are not careful, the old frightening adage of then they came for me could still be very, very real.

The idea of a teacher-pupil relationship being used, by either protagonist, is not one that will sit comfortably with many people as the recent B.B.C. programme Holly showed. However with more emphasis and sense of responsibility rather than possible titillation being employed by writer Ian Walker, the play comes across as a very good piece of artistic narrative.

A hard subject to get right but one that Ian Walker and his actors do well to get across.

Ian D. Hall