I wish that you were here to see Wish You Weren’t Here.
Wish You Weren’t Here is a one act 2 hander play written by Katie Redford, and directed by Rob Watt. It stars Eleanor Henderson as Lorna, a 32 year old mother who wants to recapture the joy of family holidays to Scarborough from when her daughter was younger, and Olivia Pentelow as Mila, who plays the now 16 year old daughter who would much rather be with her friends in London than stuck in a seaside town in a dodgy B&B with her mother.
I really enjoyed this play. The 2 actors had fabulous chemistry and were incredibly believable as mother and daughter. They played off each other brilliantly and brought the script to life. There were many laugh out loud moments, with some of the biggest laughs coming just from the daughters facial expressions listening to her mom talk.
I make no claims to be a member of Gen Z, but in my opinion, the script was able to capture the way that teenagers today talk, without falling into the cliche trap of using excessive unnatural slang. The script explores a lot of intense topics, but also has a great amount of comedy, which helps to balance out some of the more serious topics such as grief, racism, and generational conflict. Both of these characters have their faults, but they are ultimately both likeable and the audience are rooting for their relationship to improve throughout the show. The flaws in the characters, the mom living too much of her life looking for the photo opportunities to prove she’s happy, and the daughter being afraid to open up to her mom and share her life, make these characters feel human and incredibly relatable.
A small gripe with this show however, is how the revenge porn or sharing of intimate photographs storyline ultimately doesn’t really go anywhere. At the end of the play we are left with the daughter having a better relationship with her mother, but seemingly having lost all of her friends after being slut-shamed. Not everything needs to be resolved, and other threads are not resolved either, but this particular thread felt to me like it needed something more to make its purpose clearer and to provide some closure.
The set for this show is minimal but effective, with a number of large metal frames at different heights, allowing the show to have some good visual interest. The use of props in this show however did at times get a bit messy. The setting up of the Italian restaurant in particular felt like it went on a bit too long and for minimal visual effect. The arcade is brought to life purely with some pictures on the screens behind the actors and audio and a more minimal approach to the restaurant scene in a similar manner would have helped to avoid this awkwardness.
All in all, this is a good show that I very much enjoyed with excellent performances and an excellent script. Wish You Weren’t Here is playing at Soho Theatre until Saturday 2nd March