REVIEW: Wish List, The Royal Court ✭✭✭✭

Erin Doherty as Tamsin Carmody and Joseph Quinn as Dean Carmody in Wish List. Photo: Jonathan Keenan Wish List

The Royal Court

13 January 2017

4 Stars

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Winner of the 2015 Bruntwood Prize, Katherine Soper’s play explores zero contract hours Britain through brother and sister Tamsin and Dean. She packs boxes in a warehouse, to a strict, and, it seems to me, unrealistic target, to an unforgiving clock. Phones are not allowed on the floor, lunch is strictly 30 minutes, and two toilet breaks per day are questioned. Dean is housebound, has obsessive compulsive disorders and strict rituals he must keep to. He is declared fit to work and his benefits are cut, meaning more forms to fill in, appeals, and all the time Tamsin is under pressure to pack faster and to try and get support.

Joseph Quinn as Dean Carmody and Erin Boherty as Tamsin Carmody in Wish List. Photo Jonathan Keenan

That young people are put under this stress, battling a tsunami of paperwork and rules, is beautifully played by the company. Erin Doherty is utterly compelling as Tamsin, with a beautiful vulnerability held together with an edge of steel as she tries to remain optimistic, strong, and afloat. The hope in her face as the possibility-however remote- of having her terrible job made permanent and therefore a pay rise, is heartbreaking. Joseph Quinn as Dean is equally powerful, on stage as the audience enter; already carrying out one of the many rituals he needs to do to survive the day. Beckett would recognise the routine of despair these characters are in. As the Lead at the factory, Aleksander Mikic is perfect as the boss who sticks to the rules, effortlessly spouting company speak as he tries to improve productivity, offering only fragments of hope to Tamsin. If all this sounds too heavy, Shaquille Ali-Tebuah gives a wonderful performance as co-worker Luke, 16 and with plans of his own, who begins a tentative relationship with Tamsin.

Erin Doherty as Tamsin Carmody in Wish List. Photo: Jonathan Keenan

Overwhelmingly the sense that the play gives is one of tenderness. Tamsin’s patience with her brother spills into frustration, but love remains intact, with hints of the loss of their mother adding further poignancy. There is a wonderful scene between Tamsin and Luke, in which Kit-Kat and Meatloaf will melt your heart, this is how youth should be done, not slaving in a dead end job at a factory.  It is a world in which the making of a cup of tea is an act of complete love. However, with the Lead being the only authority figure, the play doesn’t rage against the machine- perhaps that is now left to Ken Loach only. There is no DWP representative, no one that the siblings can take to task, and, although decisions made distantly and arriving in a letter is cold, added conflict would raise the stakes even further. However, there are scenes in which the script hums with despair, and director Matthew Xia pitches the production perfectly, with an excellent part factory/part flat set by Ana Ines Jabares-Pita that is revealing throughout. The next time I order goods online, it will be hard not to think of people like Tamsin and Luke.

Until 11 February 2017

Photos: Alastair Muir

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Shaquille Ali Yebuah as Luke Mburu in Wish List. Photo: Jonathan Keenan