Simon Ward reviews Poison at The Cockpit Theatre

The setting of Poison, written by Dutch playwright Lot Vekemans and here translated by Rina Vergano, seems to be set in continental Europe. The fact that our two protagonists, He (Martin Maynard) and She (Lynne Livingstone) are English and Scottish respectively, suggests that they are ex-pats living in France and Holland. Whether this is deliberate or not, it creates a weirdly unsettling reminder of the pre-Brexit past when such things were uncomplicatedly possible. The characters’ situation is anything but uncomplicated, however. The subtle evocation of Michelangelo’s Pietà in Suzanne Emerson’s austerely beautiful set, positioned at an angle as if the whole world has been spun off its axis, prefigures the tragedy at the heart of the piece.

As we enter the theatre, He is already present, pacing nervously and checking his watch. When She finally arrives, it is clear that there is history between them, but conversation is awkward, stilted and brittle. She is quick to take offence at any slight, real or imagined. He is placatory, but also refusing to engage too deeply. They skirt around the room, unable to settle. They no longer know how to be in the same room together. They hardly understand what they mean to each other anymore. The pretext for their meeting is the forced removal of a grave, something to do with soil contamination. But it is really a desperate attempt to find some way to move on from the devastating loss of their child.

At the heart of the play is a sense of loss and loneliness. The two are on their own in a municipal room on the edge of a lonely graveyard, no-one but the caretaker for miles around. But She clings to the idea that she can lessen the loss by visiting and re-visiting the grave; when He says that their son is not really there it is like a physical blow. But of course he is not there, only the ‘remains’ of what he once was. He now exists in their hearts and their memories, and even these she seems to be losing – she can’t remember singing to him, perhaps she can’t bear to. He, on the other hand, has clearly found a way to move on, but without her. Her grief was clearly too much for her to bear, and he couldn’t cope with seeing her so weighed down by it. So, he escaped and in doing so abandoned her to a double loss – husband and son. How can she be expected to move on from that? She lives her life but she feels like she is simply going through the motions. She is angry with him for leaving, and furious that he has moved on to a new life, with wife and child on the way. But is there any way that this hare-brained scheme to confront him can help her? Can she see beyond her resentment of him to maybe find a path out of her despair?

Superbly acted, brilliantly cast and well directed by Rosina Pivani, this is a thought-provoking piece, which could have had an even greater impact if some of the simmering emotion had come to the boil more. When the pair finally embrace before they separate forever, there is a hint of what might have been.

Poison is running at The Cockpit Theatre, Gateforth St, London NW8 8EH until Saturday 23rd May