Katie Pollock’s THE BECOMING takes us into the world of theatre of the absurd.
A teenage girl Greta wakes up one morning wanting to turn over a new leaf. She is going to make breakfast in bed for her parents and be kind to her brother. With this in mind she brings out a pig’s head to the dining room table.
it takes a while till we meet another character and that is her mother who isn’t very impressed by her but nibbles away at the food on the table.
The father comes out with a golf club which he swats around the room.
Greta can’t stir her brother Gregor. He has locked his bedroom and isn’t responding to her calls.
There are visitors to the household – a cleaner comes to the house uncalled for, carrying a duster, cleans manically and then leaves almost as quickly as she came
Then into the living room comes Gregor’s boss Mr Kay who claims that Gregor has embezzled company funds, much to the horror of Greta and her mum. They are in a state of disbelief.
Mr Kay leaves in a huff and not long after he has gone Gregor comes out of his bedroom looking weird. It doesn’t take long for Greta and her mum to freak out at his transformation from being a sweet, good natured, fairly conservative boy to being something of a monster, on the climate change rampage. They ask him about what happened at work and he doesn’t deny that he committed fraud. How can things like this matter to him when there are far more important things to consider!
Brett Heath gives this theatre of the absurd piece a frenetic, manic and sometimes comic energy.
Sarah Maguire gives an outstanding performance in the lead role as a loving and concerned sister and daughter. In a perverse way she is the mother figure in the play, trying to meet everybody’s needs. Whilst the other characters are disconnected from each other, Greta is connected to everybody.
Patrick Holman gives a very convincing performance as the troubled, disturbed Gregor.
Jo Goddard is very credible as the mum who is completely bewildered by her son’s transformation as well as being blind to her own daughter’s needs.
Paul Wilson plays the Dad who is totally disconnected from the family and his only concern is his business and how his partner is stabbing him in the back. He is impervious to the crisis happening in his family.
Alison Benstead gave a quirky performance as the wispy, manic cleaner Lodge.
Ben Hanly played Gregor’s concerned boss Mr Kay who is solely interested in getting Gregor to admit to committing fraud.
Verdict. This was an engaging, darkly comic night at the theatre. Katie Pollock’s THE BECOMING is playing the New Theatre until Friday 20th September, 2019.
