Squint
Chelsea Theatre, London

Sophie Carmichael

Squint is a play about addiction, challenging the audience to think, what is addiction, what makes us addicted, and how can we escape it?

We are presented with Hugh, an alcoholic who struggles to keep his relationship with drug-addict Courtney afloat. Hugh seeks refuge in a religious community, in particular in the arms of Ruth, a recovering crack addict. Meanwhile, the distressed Courtney goes looking for Hugh, while his friend Jack tries desperately to get into her knickers, but at the same time convince her that she's 'special'.

I was hoping for an exciting, original, innovative play, but this felt more like something a sixth former would have thought up, given the theme 'addiction and its true nature'. I felt like I knew the story from the word go, and I was simply being taught a good healthy lesson in why not to take drugs or drink too much.

However, some of what the story lacks, the inventive and well constructive set makes up. The simple scaffolding used is perfectly neutral for every scene, allowing the audience to use their imaginations once in while. In a small studio theatre, the excitement and energy of the actors can be felt everywhere, and it is such a nice change actually to be able to see the actors' expressions, something that is not always possible in the larger West End theatres. Indeed, the intimate feel at Chelsea means the audience might be tempted to walk on to the stage and move the props around during the interval, and in this case that might have the plot rather more interesting.

Though putting television and film stars on the stage has been known to have gone disastrously wrong in the past, Patsy Palmer steals the show. Her sensitive and moving depiction of Courtney, a drug addict who refers to her self-harming as her 'work', captured the audience's hearts from the very first line. Her self-conscious touching and fidgeting makes her pain completely believable, and I couldn't help but sympathise with her desperate need to be loved and wanted.

Hugh, played by Rory Murray, is another brilliantly developed and believable character. His seemingly sub-conscious stutter, smoothly incorporated into his dialogue, makes it easy to see Hugh's high anxiety, so often hidden under his anger at the world, alcohol and himself. It seems a shame that the quality of acting outshines the rather dead-end plot and mediocre script.

Having been preached to for exactly one hour and forty-five minutes (who was counting? er, me), I came away from the theatre remembering the famous words of South Park's Mr Garisson; "Drugs are bad, m'kay?" .

Till 18 October

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