The set in Darren Bolton’s production of his own whimsical play for Shooting Fish Theatre consists of boxes rather than walls. They overwhelm Charlie, a blocked writer, for they contain not only his possessions but also his memories. What is it that prevents him writing his masterpiece? Is it the death of his father? The mother who was coldly indifferent to her son? Or could it be the ex-girlfriend (Emily Bignell) who could never stop using clichés? She crawls out of one of the boxes as he returns to those incidents that haunt him and yet seem emotionally locked away (hence the title).
Demoted to writing for children, Charlie makes a hero out of a teddy bear, who is tenderly and skilfully manipulated by the two actors as he floats in the sky under an umbrella. Although hampered by
a monotonous voice, Johnny Vivash looks every inch the tortured writer.
It’s a claustrophobic world that he lives in (perhaps he should get out more?) but the company find imaginative ways to explore what it is that holds him back.