Nancy Farino’s debut play looks at the fault lines in a father-and-daughter relationship. It is refreshing subject matter, enacted on wheels, as a road trip that Winston (Jason Thorpe) railroads Joy (also Farino) into taking, after refitting a school bus as a camper van.
Joy is a reluctant passenger, Winston a Tiggerish life coach and overbearing parent who sells the trip to her as an odyssey of discovery after tracing the family tree to County Mayo. Both are in fact seeking escape, she from her depression in the aftermath of her first big break-up, he from a legal case which involves a dead client whose grieving family hold him responsible.
It is a potently confined space that enacts the Freudian drama of blame, guilt and parental harm. This rises out of the barbed exchanges on the bus and the flashbacks to the legal case in which Winston is himself receiving coaching, of sorts, by solicitor, Claire (Shona Babayemi). A third narrative prong takes us into Joy’s dream-world which is lyrical, wintry and full of ellipses.
There is bristling banter and a great recurring joke about Bono between father and daughter but little else that is warm and fuzzy in their dynamic. He dominates, she acquiesces. A crash blows the roof off their bus and their relationship but before this culminating fight, there are layers of repressed or half-spoken feelings, delicately captured in the dialogue, and a surprisingly moving sing-along.
It builds unequally in its three parts, gaining traction in the legal case and road-trip. The liminal aspect of Joy’s interiority has a lovely, dream-like pull but feels slightly as if it is a different play. There are other unfinished elements: Claire’s story is under-explained and reflections on Joy’s heartbreak, which is mentioned again and again, are frustratingly few.
But there is deft direction from Tessa Walker and such fine performances that it becomes a pleasure to watch in its disparate parts. There is some thrilling writing here as well, both in the dialogue and Joy’s ruminative monologues. Debbie Duru’s set design brings visual poetry; the bus is just seats on wheels, its effects created by flurries of snow, light, shadow (lighting design by Christopher Nairne) and movement (by Rebecca Wield).
The originality of the staging, the invigorating writing and even the oddness of the structure makes this a wonky gem of a first play.
