The Breach (Hampstead)

[dlevi]

Naomi Wallace's play is a very peculiar power play set in rural Kentucky about a tough girl of 17 who is very protective of her 14 year old brother.  That brother though, thanks to do their homework for them,  has been befriended by two privileged bullies . Their friendship is put a test which 14 years later ( played by older actors) still has consequences on all of their lives. The actors are talented though  Jasmine Blackborrow vocally is channelling Bebe Neuwirth.   The play is very specifically in Kentucky which is at the top of the American South. And while they all have convincing American accents, no one has a southern one.  I wouldn't mention this except Ms Wallace goes out of her way to set the play there and speaks of it in the programme notes.  The evening isn't boring but it is uncomfortable because if the playwright were male, he might find himself "cancelled" for his depiction and discussion of rape and non consensual sex. But because the playwright is a woman, as is the director we're put in the position of thinking of this play as somehow empowering. I didn't buy it. 

[samuelwhiskers]

I agree. Horrifically misogynist from the opening line (which is literally “I’m not like other girls”) to the amount of time the main character spends prancing around bragging about how special and unique she is because she eats food and talks about farting, you know, not like those other girls! You know the famous speech in “Gone Girl” about Cool Girls? Jude is unashamedly and unironically a Cool Girl.

Which is obnoxious and boring but whatever. However, her perception of herself as a tough Not Like Other Girls causes her to do something I don’t believe any teenage girl would do. (TW for rape.)

SPOILER: Click to show

Her brother tells her he made a deal with his friends - who are portrayed very sympathetically, to arrange for her to be gang raped in exchange for them protecting him from bullies, but he’s decided to move to Florida to live with their grandmother who tells him if he comes to stay he can go to the beach every day, because he can’t go through with it. The sister immediately decides to go along with the plot to gang rape her and asks her brother to drug her prior to the rape, because she’s tough and it’s empowering for her to secretly consent without their knowledge.

I guess it’s sort of an interesting question about consent, that she does explicitly verbally consent so technically it’s not rape but the young men don’t know that. They clearly intend to gang rape her unconscious body regardless.

I actually did find the play boring as it’s almost entirely reported speech, very little happens onstage, it’s just actors telling each other what has happened in the past.

The animal death

SPOILER: Click to show

a dog is killed, and the brother has a terminally ill pet rat who meets a sticky end

is unnecessary.

A deeply unpleasant play. People walked out during the interval on press night, and I noticed a few people refuse to clap at the end which I’ve never seen before at a press night.



I don’t generally look at content warnings but I notice the CW on the website are woefully inadequate. They don’t mention the animal murder at all which is a CW many people would need, and pass off the fact the entire play is about a gang rape (with a very graphic reported rape scene taking up much of the second half) as “reference to sexual assault.” That’s like content warning Titus Adronicus by saying “reference to baking.”

[zahidf]

This really doesnt sound like a pleasant evening. Glad i didnt get a ticket

[lonlad]

Tawdry and lurid and trapped in a pretentious, self-regarding production. Avoid. It will struggle to play to 50% across the run if tonight is any (woeful) gauge.

[showgirl]

Sounds a bit ageist to say this, but irrespective of its merits, or lack of them, when the production was announced it had zero appeal for me as it was about young people. I do know they're also portrayed at a later stage in their lives, but it was the same with the latest downstairs production, too (Wolf Cub): not only a one-person performance, which isn't a play at all imo, but about a young person. I've no objection to actual plays about people of any age but how about a range of them, as in real life? Fine if you're trying to attract a younger audience and think this is the way to do it but for me, as an older person and part of the established audience, it has the opposite effect, ie it will keep me away.

[lonlad]

Fair enough, but their previous two plays, THE FOREST and THE FEVER SYNDROME, both featured people in middle age (and in some cases older), so don't think this is any sort of trend - it just is what it is. Just a shame that THE BREACH is so poor (and I didn't much care for WOLF CUB either).

[Dave B]

I very much enjoyed Wolf Cub and I thought The Breach was terrible. Both groups sat next to me - in the front row - at the second press night (I don't understand two press nights but hey ho) left at the interval. Upstairs was closed and the reviews I saw a couple of days ago were poor,really poor. I struggle to see how this is going to run until June 04.

A couple of nice performances but the play seems to go out of it's way to make the

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}rapists sympathetic.

The programme goes on and on about it being a Kentucky play but there is feck all to do with this and no accents to suggest it is anything other than a random US suburb.

Really really really did not like this.

[cavocado]

May 14, 2022 4:26:13 GMT showgirl said:

Sounds a bit ageist to say this, but irrespective of its merits, or lack of them, when the production was announced it had zero appeal for me as it was about young people. I do know they're also portrayed at a later stage in their lives, but it was the same with the latest downstairs production, too (Wolf Cub): not only a one-person performance, which isn't a play at all imo, but about a young person. I've no objection to actual plays about people of any age but how about a range of them, as in real life? Fine if you're trying to attract a younger audience and think this is the way to do it but for me, as an older person and part of the established audience, it has the opposite effect, ie it will keep me away.

I didn't book The Breach or Wolf Cub for the same reason, although I think Hampstead does have a better age age range in the plays they programme than other new writing theatres (Royal Court and Soho for example). Often plays 'about' older people are more about the dynamics of a multigeneration family (as with Fever Syndrome) rather than exploring less well-trodden aspects of middle/old age. I'd love to see more new plays about 50+ people not being matriarchs/patriarchs.

[showgirl]

May 14, 2022 9:05:48 GMT lonlad said:

Fair enough, but their previous two plays, THE FOREST and THE FEVER SYNDROME, both featured people in middle age (and in some cases older), so don't think this is any sort of trend - it just is what it is. Just a shame that THE BREACH is so poor (and I didn't much care for WOLF CUB either).

True, but The Fever Syndrome was a multi-generational play and indeed the plot hinged on the conficts between them.  And though The Forest had a narrower age range, the daughter and the mistress were of a younger generation than the rest of the characters.  It's plays focusing solely on one generation which seem unrealistic to me and as an older person, if I'm not even "seen", I don't want to see them either.  

[Mark]

Looks like this has quietly cancelled its last week of performances. Was originally to run until 4th June.

[thistimetomorrow]

I was there during the week and it was quite empty. Dont think the circle was open and the stalls was only maybe 50-60% full if that.

[perfectspy]

I saw this on Saturday matinee performance. It seemed to be almost full in the stalls.

I also didn’t get the point of mentioning Kentucky. It would have been better to just let the audience believe it was a random American suburb.

For me, an odd play but I did enjoy parts of it.