THEATRE ONLINE
Reviewer: Kate Herbert (viewed online in July 2020)
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/seawallfilm/99749028
Stars: 5
Andrew Scott, in his solo performance of Sea Wall by Simon Stephens, displays his startling capacity to alarm and engage simultaneously.
Alone in a cavernous, studio space littered with paraphernalia, Scott switches on a single camera and addresses his faraway, online audience directly as a man who he tells his personal tale of love, happy family life with his beloved wife, adored young daughter and his relationship with his father-in-law.
In Stephens' considered and moving script, Scott's story shifts suddenly from past to present as he interrupts episodes at the very moment he is about to reveal something that we, his rapt audience, long to hear – and also fear to hear.
The child is perfect, the marriage is perfect the father-in-law in interesting, so why does Scott’s character swing suddenly from jubilation to teetering on the edge of despair and seem to be on the verge of confession of – what?
He paces nervily around his studio as searching for the words to express that thing he is hiding from us. He breaks off mind-conversation, mid-sentence, and tilts back to the past to describe another light- and love-filled memory; his first, magical encounter with his wife, their seemingly blessed marriage or the joyful birth of their child.
Scott makes us hold our breath in anticipation of the joy or disaster that is to come – and the disquieting revelation explains all that comes before.
by Kate Herbert
