Milk
Traverse
12 August 2016
5 Stars
Book Now The Traverse has been the powerhouse of new writing for so long, it' s easy to take it for granted. But every year it presents a varied programme and plays to remember. This year it' s Milk, Ross Dunsmore's beautiful play about the need for nourishment, both food, and love. Steph and Ash are teens facing a future made up of celebrity dreams. Unhappy about her image and the lack of attention from Ash, she fixates on her teacher, Danny. He is an expectant father and his wife, Nicole, is determined to breast feed. Cyril and May are in their nineties, afraid to leave their flat because of youths and dogs, even though he liberated Europe. At first, the strands seem seperate, but when Steph kisses Danny and sends him a topless picture, Nicole struggles to breast feed and May dies, meanng Cyril has to leave the flat, the strands are beautifully brought together. Orla O'Loughlin's sensitive direction and Paul Meller's uncluttered design guides us through the need for love. Yes, some strands are left loose, but a terrific ensemble, (so good no one should be singled out), and a deeply moving conclusion underlines the milk of human kindness. Theatrical nourishment.
Photo: Sally Jubb
BOOK NOW FOR MILK AT THE TRAVERSE
Paul is a playwright, director, actor, academic, (he has a PhD from the University of East Anglia), teacher and theatre reviewer! His plays include Living with Luke, (UK tour 2016), Play Something, (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Drayton Arms Theatre, London 2018), , (2019), and now The Miner’s Crow, which won the inaugural Artist’s Pick of the Fringe Award at the first ever Colchester Fringe Festival 2021. In lockdown 2020 he created the audio series Isolation Alan, available on Youtube, and performed online in the Voice Box Festival. He is the founder member of Stage Write, a Colchester based theatre company, and his acting roles include Rupert in How We Love by Annette Brook, first performed at the Vaults Festival 2020 and revived at the Arcola and at Theatre Peckham in 2021. Follow: @stagewrite_
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