The Cutting Edge is a moving piece of theatre that captures how the present is haunted by the past.
Unrecognisable folk songs are playing as the audience drifts into the theatre. The relaxing music and homely setting lull the small crowd gathered around the stage into believing this will be an easy-going evening of theatre. But The Cutting Edge is really a play about how the past incapacitates the present, disguised as a subdued story about marriage and friendship.
The play depicts Anna (Jasmine Hyde) and Chris (David Sturzaker) struggling to live a self-sufficient life in the countryside. They are confronted by the past when the mysterious Elvira (Maggie Steed) drops by to visit their house- the setting of her young adulthood.
This is the third play Jack Shepherd has written for Hackney’s Arcola Theatre. As the theatre’s Artistic Director, Mehmet Ergen mentioned in a written statement: “Jack Shepherd is an exceptional theatre maker and one of the people who helped to shape Arcola’s first two decades, so it is very special that he will be opening our 20th anniversary season.”
Quotidian juxtapositions
Jack Shepherd’s writing balances difficult topics with innocuous, everyday conversations; discussions of mortality alongside meal prepping for a dinner party, serious mental health worries alongside plans to redecorate the garden. He has the unique talent of writing dialogue which feels natural and loose, like the audience is really chatting with the characters over a cup of tea. This isn’t surprising, considering Shepherd was an actor and clearly understands the rhythms that performers prefer when mirroring casual conversation.
Studio 1 has a thrust stage, with the audience seated around three sides of the scene. Most of the production takes place in Chris and Anna’s kitchen, (complete with a seemingly working kettle and stove.) This lifelike setting and the proximity to the actors allows the audience to feel settled in this house, which results in uneasiness when Elvira eventually invades this space.
Jasmine Hyde’s performance as Anna stands out. Her inner turbulence, which is written into the script, translates into a jittery physical performance. Hyde is so careful, quietly restricting the amount of space she takes up in her own home. With every folding of her arms and crossing of her legs, you feel that Anna is hyper-aware of how she could inconvenience the people around her. Maggie Steed’s depiction of Elvira is perhaps too flourishing and fanciful for my taste but her exquisite comic timing alleviates the tension from the more sombre moments of the show.
Captivating and strained dynamics
The rest of the cast are delivering impressive performances. They inhabited these authentic, if somewhat eccentric, characters with ease. The dynamic between Chris and Anna walks the line between being well-worn and strained. Shepherd makes a case for this couple not to be together, right before he captures a gentle, loving moment between the two. This relational push and pull is captivating.
When the play is struggling with questions regarding the past and present, it is an engaging, often moving, piece of art. But the moments when Shepherd explores the relationship between class and art are at best unclear and at worst baffling. There is a long scene where two of the characters get into a heated fight over modernist art, I was left unsure as to what this fight was trying to say in the context of the whole play. These two themes don’t fit together comfortably and sullied an otherwise wonderful experience.
I would recommend a trip to the theatre to see The Cutting Edge. The cast gives deliberate, thoughtful performances and the set is one of the best designed I have seen in a while. A night of great theatre for only £12- what’s better than that?
