When you’re set on a path that contains sexual abuse, incest and sexual violence you know that things aren’t going to end well, but it’s often this terrible inevitability that makes stories like this one so compulsive. This should be the case with Girl in Box, as it promises the mother of all car crash ending, but the flow and gravity of this otherwise good piece are continually jarred by an increasingly grating narration.
In fact, given that this awful role opens the piece, the narrator comes close to ruining the entire production, as her desperately un-sexy come-ons and pouts certainly put the audience out from the off. However, the rest of the play largely manages to redeem itself with its sordid tale of a complex and terminal love triangle.
While this is largely an unhappy tale, the cast flips easily between the odd moments of happiness and the dark and disturbing feeling that permeates the majority of the play, but this never really generates any hope for any of the characters. This is probably of little consequence, as it is clear that they are all pretty much doomed in their own little ways but a glimmer of redemption would help drive this story home better.
By and large, Girl in Box is a decent play but it could do with a rewrite, as the narrator seriously detracts from this performance, and it would be nice to see them work in more of the movement that really bring the sex scenes alive.
3/5
Richard Biggs
