Simon Ward reviews Getaway/Runaway at The Lion & Unicorn Theatre

There is always a frisson of excitement when the actors are already on stage as the audience enters the auditorium. Sometimes there is some business going on, perhaps even a bit of audience participation. But, when, as here, the performers are just lined up at the back, the tension build-up is palpable.

Written and co-directed by Noah McCreadie, this is a tense, riveting study of a family torn apart by the devastating consequences of addiction. Laced with elements of Grand Guignol, it is nevertheless utterly convincing in its portrayal of family relationships, and of the damage that can be done within families.

Brother and sister, Eliot (Nye Occomore) and Saoirse (Keira Murray), meet up in the house where their father Mark (Chris Moore) is living with his new partner, Alice (Coline Atterbury), following his release from prison. We later learn that this was for the manslaugher of a child, whilst drink-driving. In fact, he is an alcoholic, although supposedly now in recovery, aided by Alice, who is a recovering sex addict. For his part, Eliot has been accused of rape by one of the students at his college. As the older sister, Saoirse is deeply worried about all of this, and she is also suspicious of Alice and her intentions. And when Mark appears he does nothing to dispel her fears. He is a bundle of suppressed rage, wound up and tense as a clenched fist. His bonhomie with the children feels forced and unnatural, all the more so when we discover that they have not been allowed to visit him during the years in prison. And the graphic violence as he describes what he would do to Eliot’s accuser feels too close to the surface to be restrained for long.

I mentioned Grand Guignol earlier, and there is also perhaps an element of fairytale here as well. We have, after all, got two siblings in a strange remote house, under the auspices of a stepmother. Alice indeed seems to have a sinister role in proceedings. She is not as good an influence on Mark as they make out – her sex addiction is by no means under control and his subsequent self-loathing when he falls under her spell may well be one reason why he falls so spectacularly off the wagon. Nor is she good for Eliot, in whom she seems to have an unhealthy interest. Does Alice have anything to do with the mysterious package that arrives seemingly out of nowhere and is the agent of Mark’s undoing?

As Saoirse frets and complains, Eliot would rather just go with the flow. He does, however, confess to being terrified that he has inherited his father’s temperament, and his drinking.

Running for just an hour, this is a work which doesn’t spoon-feed you all the answers. We get glimpses and snapshots and we have to piece together the story as best we can. Everyone here is damaged and none of them have the answers either. Precisely because we are clinging on to pick up clues here and there, the piece is utterly compelling. All the performances are excellent, and the tension is ratcheted up still further by the sound and music of Johnny Edwards. It is rare for the sound effects to be delivered so effectively and the music serves the text perfectly in turning the screw.

Getaway/Runaway runs at The Lion & Unicorn Theatre, 42, Glaisford Street, London NW5 2ED until Saturday 29th July