Heart Wall
How often does a night at the theatre begin with an actual full-on karaoke session? Maybe yours does all the time, but certainly not mine (and more’s the pity). Yet that’s the set-up at Heart Wall – enter the auditorium at the Bush Theatre, scan the QR codes covering the walls, and sign up to sing.
As pre-shows go, ticketholders belting while the crowd claps and the barman and girl sitting at the on stage bar laugh is a delightfully high concept way to kick things off. But that makes sense. Heart Wall, written by Kit Withington and directed by Katie Greenall, is full of equally big ideas. Not all of them are fully realised in the show’s one act, yet this is a lively, emotive piece of work, providing one of the most fun nights at the theatre I’ve had in a long time. (No, I didn’t sing).
The girl at the bar is 23-year-old Franky (Rowan Robinson), who’s returned home, to an undisclosed town in the north of England, to surprise her parents. Father Dez (Deka Walmsley) hugs Franky with bewilderment-tinged delight. After all, it’s been over a year since his daughter has come home.
The father-daughter chemistry between Franky and Dez is instantaneous, even if his London-swelling daughter might look down her nose at her hometown. Franky’s told that this, life at home, is ‘enough’, but she clearly doesn’t believe it. Robinson has a masterful handle of this kind of snobbery, preventing the character from ever becoming fully unpleasant even when she acts out or makes snide remarks....
