Fans of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go will not want to miss the world premiere theatrical version at Kingston’s Rose Theatre says Richard Davies. The show runs from 20 Sep – 12 Oct 2024.
OUR VERDICT
If you’re a fan of the book or movie, the Rose Theatre’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go is a “must see”. Three years in the making, this harrowing play is a stunning achievement for Artistic Director, Christopher Haydon and Suzanne Heathcote, who has so brilliantly adapted it for the stage.
It is both gripping and harrowing in equal measure.
The story is told through the experiences of Kathy, the book’s narrator, who is a constant on-stage presence. Kathy is a carer in a hospital and takes pride in being a good one.
Her patient, Phillip, is preparing to make his first ‘donation’. In this dystopic world that reverses the Frankenstein myth, Phillip is a clone whose sole purpose is to supply body parts so that others can live. Most patients ‘complete’ with their fourth donation, but for some the end comes sooner.
Kathy understands the importance of keeping her patients calm and happy, because she is herself a clone, still awaiting her first summons. When Phillip learns that Kathy is from Hailsham, he begs her to tell him about her life there and at this point, the stage transforms from hospital to dormitory.
Hailsham, we discover, is a parody of a progressive boarding school, where the young students are encouraged to express themselves through art and sex is tolerated as a harmless pastime (as clones, they cannot reproduce.) When her friends Ruth and Tommy become a couple, Kathy becomes the gooseberry and the story revolves around the emotional twists and turns of their triadic relationship. We learn about their hopes, dreams and fantasies as they face up to the depressing reality of their existence. As the Sex Pistols once sang, these young people have NO FUTURE.
The acting is wonderfully understated, like watching people you know share their most intimate secrets. Nell Barlow and Matilda Bailes both excel as Kathy and Ruth. Their complicated friendship, packed with all life’s contradictions and surprises, is completely believable.
Angus Imrie also shines as happy-go-lucky Tommy, whose naïve, romantic attempts to resist the inevitable brought a lump to my throat. Amelie Abbott, a graduate of the Rose Youth Theatre, and Maximus Evans both impress in their debut professional performances.
Designer, Tom Piper’s set perfectly evokes the sterile horror of private hospitals, complete with the oxygen-sucking 'whoosh' of fire doors and mobile furniture as the inmates are whisked in and out of treatment rooms and operating theatres.
Special plaudits are also due to composer, Eamonn O’Dwyer who has written a beautiful version of the title song by fictional artist, Judy Bridgewater in the style of a 1940s jazz classic, recorded by the highly talented singer, Marisha Wallace.
The song features on an old cassette tape that Kathy once owned and treasured, we suspect without ever understanding why it held such significance for her. With its message of how love survives even when hope dies, the song haunts the production and lingers in the brain like a song you have always known.
At times, I found the play almost unbearable to watch because of its emotional intensity and the sheer bleakness of the characters’ situation.
Ultimately, it is their unquestioning acceptance of their fate that is so horrific, that makes you want to scream “RUN AWAY!” until you have no voice left. While the play has a chilling message about the ethics of medical science and genetic engineering, it is also about the human condition.
We, the audience, are invited to reflect on the existential question of how much agency we have in our own lives before we face the inevitable. In the end, only love survives.
