★★★✰✰
A chair. A deck of cards. The start of a night out. Sarah Milton’s self-scripted one-woman show ‘4’ explores the consequences of denying reality, sexuality and yourself, and whilst it falls neatly into the post-Fleabag era of introspective female dramas, it finds some insightful things to say about friendship in the process.
Milton’s protagonist, known for the bulk of the piece as ‘She’, is quiet and lonely, except while drinking, when she transforms into Maggie. Defined by her friend Trixie’s perception of her, Maggie becomes She’s way of enjoying the boons of being ‘fun’ and of heavy drinking. A fantasy which is quickly undermined when She wakes up in bed with a man she doesn’t remember, covered in bruises and with little sympathy. The event triggers a re-evaluation of She’s life, as she explores her relationship with Trixie, her mother, her colleague, her sexuality, her sense of self-worth and ultimately her name. Milton gets to the heart of the ramifications of sexual abuse and how they can be ignored by those around you, and the way in which She’s life spirals, but offers a chance for a happy ending, is convincing and impactful.
The wide scope of these topics means that some go rather unexplored. For instance, we aren’t really able to get to grips with the impact of her emotionally distant mother and absent father on her poor social skills beyond that her mother never engages with her beyond a cup of tea. When this relationship is resolved at the end, it seems almost too neat. Similarly, her alcohol abuse is left underdeveloped, and I was surprised during a scene where She consumes a full bottle of wine before making it out, as there didn’t seem to be much groundwork for these decisions earlier in the play.
However Milton’s descriptions are frequently vivid and the poetry of her writing engaging. So too is her physicality, easily embodying characters such as Trixie and colleague Angelica to contrast their depth with She’s sense of being half-finished, an interesting character choice which while well-performed does slightly distract from She as a fully developed individual herself. If Milton emerges as the star of the show over She, this is mostly due to the length of the piece which necessarily contracts experience over multiple years into an hour, but sometimes at the expense of depth.
In short, 4 shines a piercing light on the impact of sexual trauma, and how this can trigger a re-evaluation of an unsatisfactory life. From it, Milton emerges as a talent to take notice of, even if our protagonist’s personality might fade into the background of the intensity of the things she experiences.
Words by Issy Flower
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