This new play by David Shopland, writer and director of the hit show Saving Britney, opened to a full house at the Omnibus Theatre.
Set in Northwood Hills, in the suburbs of London, the play takes place in the house of Ruth and Frank, who live in the eponymous cul-de-sac. Over the course of one evening, their neighbours pop by for seemingly innocent and ordinary reasons. But as the night wears on and more alcohol is consumed, the tension builds and chaos unfolds.
This is a play of two distinct halves. In the first half, we are introduced to the five characters we are going to be spending the evening with. There are a lot of laughs and the comic timing is very good, but there are hints of darker secrets at play. The effect is both funny and engaging, and reminiscent of an Ayckbourn play.
Ruth (played by Shereen Roushbaiani) is a 36-year-old ex-therapist struggling with life in Suburbia. She “hates the concept of what images it conjures up” and believes that geography changes people’s behaviours, which might explain the exaggerated way the characters behave for most of the play, stuck as they are in a literal and virtual cul-de-sac in Zone 6. Roushbaiani does a good job with her role, bringing believability, pathos and humour to her performance, but at times her voice is hardly more than a whisper, which undermines some of the more emotional scenes.
Ruth is married to an NHS worker, Frank (Ellis J Wells), who is the true centre of the story. A lot is asked of Wells who has to swerve from petty-mindedness to anger, from drunken hi-jinks to overwhelming grief. Like much of the play, the performance is a little amped up, but Wells delivers some heartfelt moments when it really counts.
Neighbour Simon is a caricature of a bumbling nerd (he is obsessed with old British Telecom adverts) with his bottle-bottom glasses and comedy haircut. Despite a sad back story – his wife has left him and he’s losing his job – he is nevertheless played as a comic element by Callum Patrick Hughes, who gurns his way through the entire play. Simon is not a believable character, and at times it felt that the script had run out of ideas for him, so he just sat in a corner. At one point, he leaves the room to “go and stand upstairs” (despite only living next door!). Perhaps Simon should simply have come and gone much earlier rather than hang around like a spare part.
The standout actor of the evening for me was Lucy Farrett, who plays Marie, the vicar’s wife, who is having a secret affair. Farrett gave a powerful performance, delivering both comedically and emotionally, bringing to life all the complexity of her character’s conflicting elements – a Christian, an adulterer, a good neighbour… It’s a minor niggle, but if there’s one thing that could have been improved, it’s her dancing. Despite us being told that she is a seasoned salsa dancer, when pressed by Frank she performs some crazy ‘mum’ dance when it would have had so much more impact if she had become a sultry Latin dancer, showing us what it was that led her illicit estate agent lover to fall for her in the first place.
Hamza, the Estate Agent, is only introduced at the end of the first half, but he has an important presence in Act II. Behkam Salehani gives a strong performance here, avoiding falling into cliché in what is mainly a supporting role. His big moment comes when he says you can’t know what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes, and this notion runs through much of the play.
In the second half of the show, the comedy is dialled back and the intensity is ramped up, but it feels laboured and just way too long. Shopland has a lot of ideas and he introduces so many themes that they became jumbled and repetitive – anger, grief, guilt, betrayal, infidelity, sexuality, politics, racism, religion – so much that nothing can be given the platform it deserves in one play, and hence the whole thing lasts just under three hours!
The reveal (not necessarily the big reveal) of the backstory of all the characters needs some serious editing, chunks of dialogue need to go, the pregnant pauses need to be shortened, and the play needs to be considerably tightened. The Ayckbourn-esque delivery of the first half suggests a way forward that could have worked much better. In fact, in my opinion, this could be very effective as a one-act 70-80 minute show. Sometimes, less is more.
Review by Fiona Gilbert
Northwood Hills. Zone 6 London. The Middle of Nowhere.
Ruth is questioning every decision she’s ever made. Simon is grappling with a personality he can’t quite define. Marie is keeping a secret that could shatter everything. And Frank? Frank just wants his driveway back.
What starts as a quiet evening rapidly unravels, as polite smiles give way to sharp words, truths spill as freely as the booze, and when an unexpected guest arrives, the night explodes into chaos. It’s suburbia like you’ve never seen it before.
CAST
Shereen Roushbaiani – Ruth Townsend
Ellis J. Wells – Frank Townsend
Lucy Farrett – Marie Gilchrist
Callum Patrick Hughes – Simon Waller
Bekham Salehani – Hamza Al-Haytham
CREATIVES
Writer, Director and Designer – David Shopland
Movement Director – Jahraine Lamb
Dramaturg – Roann Hassani McCloskey
Assistant Director and Intimacy Coordinator – Lexie Woodroof
Technical Director and Lighting Consultant – Luke John Emmett
CUL-DE-SAC
Omnibus Theatre
27 May to 14 June 2025
