23.5 Hours
Leigh (Lisa Dwan) and Tom (David Sturzaker) live their everyday American life with their son Nicholas (Jem Matthews) and close friends Bruce (Jonathan Nyati) and Jayne (Allyson Ava-Brown) until Tom gets a call from his manager at work, the Headteacher, and ends up in prison after getting too close to a student.
TW: This review contains plot points such as sexual assault and grooming.
Carey Crim’s play 23.5 Hours explores the people around a convicted sex offender, and how their lives are impacted. Tom (Struzaker) is a drama teacher who is convicted of grooming and having a sexual relationship with his student, who is playing Juliet in the school show he is directing. The audience learn about his crime through his family and friends who have become victims of the public court of opinion. His wife and child are threatened and have their whole lives destroyed which only gets worse when Tom (Sturzaker) arrives back from prison. It’s been two years of constant torment for his wife and son, and now he wants to return to “normal”.
Although he maintains his innocence, Tom (Sturzaker) seems to keep slipping up, as flaunting the rules is his way of life. Crim’s play is an impressive microcosm of trust issues as each character has something in question, creating a strange “mystery” genre throughout as plot points are revealed. Did Tom have sexual intercourse with a student? Has the son Nicholas (Matthews) turned to drugs to get through the shame? Why is friend and fellow teacher Bruce so confident Tom is innocent? Why is Bruce’s wife Jayne so adamant Tom can’t be around their teenage daughters again? And, why is Leigh so determined not to leave her husband even though she can’t be sure he is innocent?
The emotional range shown by Leigh (Dwan) is impeccable. Her portrayal of the wife of a convicted offender showcases the harrowing ordeal of masking during the day, trying to hold together a job, and be a parent, while crumbling as soon as reality hits and she is back home with her husband. While Leigh (Dwan) wants to believe Tom (Sturzaker) is innocent, something is always holding her back, and this emotional depth in Dwan’s performance is flawless.
Another family member caught up in the aftermath of his father’s actions is Nicholas (Matthews), who regularly storms off upstairs or is “going out” as some teenagers do. Matthews portrays the troubled teenager well as he battles his relationship with his parents and brings home the trauma of school.
However, some lines of dialogue were unfortunately predictable, while others seemed out of place and unnatural. These moments were unfortunate as director Katherine Farmer created movements that displayed relationships and emotion better than the dialogue on occasion. Farmer’s ability to have characters interact in low light to a beautiful score by Julian Starr were moments embedded in the play to show time passing or to highlight relationships that had been missed. In particular, the familiarity and comfortability of Nicholas (Matthews) and Leigh (Dwan) provided a stark contrast to how these characters interacted with Tom (Sturzaker).
Part of the genius of 23.5 Hours is the exclusivity of the set. The set and costume worked in tandem, designed by Carla Goodman, showcasing the world on and off stage. With the set never changing, only parts of the interior decoration, the costumes provided a vital indication of what is going on outside of this room. Characters entered the space in work attire, pyjamas, basketball tops, etc. to provide the pretext for the scene. Goodman’s design was intelligent and practical and must be commended for its storytelling.
The outside world leaks into this private family home, which is impressively assisted by the lighting (Jamie Platt) and sound (Julian Starr) design, which bring the world to life around this communal space. New sounds are heard as doors open, and light bleeds in from windows and upstairs, all adding to the world still going on around them as their world falls apart inside this home. In particular, phones and diegetic music were impressively designed to create a spatial awareness and come from the devices themselves, guiding an audience’s eye to key and pivotal moments.
Overall, 23.5 hours is a thought-provoking and emotional play that highlights the modern world and raises questions about the public court of opinion and how it affects those around the criminal.
This show was reviewed on the 9th September 2024 at the Park Theatre London where it runs until the 5th October 2024. Tickets available here: 23.5 Hours - Park Theatre
Review written by Ryan Lenney
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Photo credit: Charles Flint
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