Picture courtesy from tabardweb.co.uk

Originally published by L.S.Media. June 16th 2011.

Cast: Eddie Fortune, Rosie MacPherson, John James Tomlinson.

One of the final plays of the current season on offer by the Unity Theatre is the hard hitting and emotional drama, Elastic Bridge. Unusually for a play, as the audience took their seats to enjoy the show, one of the actors was already on stage pacing the small set in a scene of absolute desperation etched all over his face. This unique beginning drew the audience in straight from the start and provided a new take on how to stage a performance.

Elastic Bridge takes a look at the lives of those that society seems to have forgotten, ignored and passed by and three seemingly ordinary looking people that were portrayed on stage sums up all aspects of humanity and their worries and fears.

The three actors, Eddie Fortune, Rosie MacPherson and John James Tomlinson held their own and the audience’s attention superbly as they flitted between the absurdity of their combined experiences that led them to be contemplating suicide and the loneliness they all felt as each one related their story to the other two would be jumpers.

Elastic Bridge may have been short in running time in comparison to other productions that the Unity Theatre has put on this season but it was in no way diminished the true endeavour and superb acting that came across. Well crafted and with a brilliant final pay off with the revelation of Kurt’s confession and how he ended up not just a man contemplating suicide but of the lives he has destroyed in the process.

A breathtaking piece of story-telling that does much to enhance the idea of minimalist story theatre.

Ian D. Hall