An intimate, angry tale of dysfunction and destruction
A new student production made its debut at the Burton Taylor Studio theatre in Oxford this week. Elspeth Rogers’ Night Shift takes place over a week in Shaya’s life, from the morning her parents kick her out, following what seems like her hundredth messy, drug-filled night out. All within the walls of her small box room, she discusses, argues and dreams about all the moments that led her here with her parents and her awkwardly still-in-touch ex-girlfriend.
Millie Deere’s performance as the intoxicated Shaya carried us through the one-hour play, blurring the lines between dreams, trips and reality. We were welcomed to the space by a set reminiscent of Tracey Emin’s ‘My Bed’; a ‘floordrobe’ scattered with knickers, socks and empty cans of Stella Artois surrounded Deere, sound asleep in her single bed, the focal point of the thrust stage. Immediately, I felt the foreboding of a chaotic teenage nightmare.
A swift entrance from Shaya’s father, played by Ethan McLucas, teed up the uncomfortable family dynamic, and Deere’s volatile melancholy was well observed. Although lacking in spontaneity and imagination, the small cast’s duologues held the room well, and relationships, especially between the three young women, were oddly relatable. Themes of confused sexuality and naivety were intertwined with raw confrontation of mental illness and addiction. I found interactions were well written and I sympathised with the protagonist, despite her persistently questionable behaviour. As the play reached its climax, a poignant scene between Shaya and Hayley took me by pleasant surprise.
The lighting and set design did impress me; dream sequences were lit by a halo strip light which hung from the ceiling, combining the classic 21st century teenage bedroom with a sort of awkward divinity, in keeping with the play’s themes. Deere used her ‘floordrobe’ comically at various moments, kicking a tube of Pringles in a hunt for her house keys, or scrounging for a cigarette among the debris. There were some lovely canvases upstage left, a shrine of works by Shaya, which were used to build sympathy and support her story. As a whole, I felt this was a play well suited to its fringe stage, and impactful in its messages, but lacking in originality and punch.