Sharp, rare, and utterly exciting, Monster explores a group of people’s lives under the veil of violence.
Performing at Seven Dials Playhouse from 24 Sep to 18 Oct, Monster, a new writing by Abigail Hood, brings a brilliant story of the search for love and connection behind a veil of shocking violence to the London stage. With a mostly Scottish cast and a story based in Glasgow, Monster presents a creative voice that is rare and utterly exciting to the London stage.
As Abigail Hood’s first produced play, Monster reveals her unbelievable ability and maturity as a writer to look into the void of humanity through charged and highly engaging scenes. The play is divided into two halves, but this structure speaks especially well to the theatre space. The first half is charged with energy, highlighting a number of well-grounded yet highly unique female characters. It is brought to a sudden close by a breathtaking moment of child violence. The second half takes us 13 years later, witnessing how lives were forever changed by that incident. Through a well-curated sequence of scenes, we watch the heartbreaking falling apart of one family and the construction of another, all with an underlying unsettling feeling that ticks at the audience’s conscience.
Abigail Hood’s dialogue is highly authentic yet reveals complex human nature. She has the ability to grasp controversial social and political events and distill them into everyday conversations. Her scenes are full of energy and highly engrossing, grabbing your attention from the start as she strikes a perfect balance between the complexity of the story and its dramatization.
The acting is utterly impeccable. Every actor gives a fully embodied performance, creating a strong ensemble on stage. They grant the working-class characters from Glasgow a true presence; every part of their body serves the story faithfully. Abigail, also the creator, shows mastery in her acting. She renders force to a young, troubled teenager and also portrays the adult Kayley as a highly distinguishable grownup—different, yet at moments letting her younger self slip through. Lisa Ellis is impeccable as Rebecca Hastie. From her first monologue she grabs our heart, and this heartwrenching performance shows how an angel-like character was broken by a merciless fate. Sarah Waddell as Kayleigh’s mom gives a distinctive and memorable quality to her character. From an irresponsible mom to a person on the verge of her own death, she steals every scene she is in.
Comparatively, a few scenes towards the very end feel slightly off the ground, yet admittedly it is hard to give a perfect ending to the topics the play explores. The director did a great job bringing out the chemistry in each scene and skillfully weaving them into a breath-taking ride. However, for my taste, the choice to always use music as a transition does not serve the overall experience. Yet despite these small things, Monster still makes a highly impressive mark on the current London stage with its sharpness and poignancy.
This may not be a story that offers perfect morals; the “bad person” is not punished but given a chance to move on. Yet the writing does not shy away from looking sharply into the sticky, ugly bits of how we behave, the downside of social construction, and how a monster could be made and unmade.