The Stage
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The Stage
Susan Elkin
Sept, 2005
Although Blowback is a play for the 13-plus age group about issues such as race, teenage sex, drugs and dysfunctional families, Emily Nightgale's characterisation and plot are strong enough to prevent too much self-conscious worthiness. Paul (Patrick Thornton), trying to conceal his vulnerability with a well-acted facade of nonchalance, is a drop-out hanging about ona roof of a block of flats in globally warmed Stepney around 2020. There he meets and falls in love with Sufia (Babita Pohoolmull), a thoughtful and mercurially pretty Asian girl. Of course there has to be another force impinging on them for dramatic tension and it comes in the shape of Paul's sister, Leah (Louise Leone), a single mother who loathes her brother's relationship and is disturbingly confused about her own role as mother, daughter, friend and occasional partner of the off-stage character Tattoo Steve.
The climax comes in a horrifying rooftop accident and its aftermath of remorse, forgiveness and reconciliation. There is a well done, blood red, nightmare scene in which Thornton, his voice cracked and ragged, gives a fine performance of haunted, anguished guilt. Later Leone, who shifts expertly between brittle hardness and nuturing motherliness at her allotment and during rooftop visits, plays her character's dreadful loss with great sensitivity. Pohoolmull finds gentle warmth in Sufia and although the play ends with a (very) final futuristic parting, there is a sense of optimism for the future.
Steff Ungerser's music works well - and it comes on a CD to take away as part of the programme - with its Bangladeshi and Ghanian leitmotivs.
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