★★★★★
A twisting myth of bisexuality, Rafaella Marcus’ Fringe hit Sap keeps you on the edge of your seat. Based on the story of Daphne and Apollo, the story follows a woman working in comms for a domestic abuse charity as she discovers her new girlfriend is the sister of a man she had a one night stand with. As both relationships develop, she finds herself trapped in more ways than one.
In Jessica Lazar’s slick production, Soho Theatre’s upstairs space is transformed with a mirrored floor and eerie layers of haze. The show begins light-hearted, as lead actress Jessica Clark quips about office culture and how every lesbian bar in London has become another Pret. Marcus’ writing lulls us into a false sense of security, before the tone evolves into something far more sinister.
The script notes that Sap can be performed by any number of people, and here we have a cast of two. Clark as the lead gives a consistently captivating performance, holding eye contact with every audience member and making you feel as though she is speaking directly to you and you only. This is a role that requires charisma and comedy, as well as real vulnerability and painful emotional depth, and she pulls off all aspects of the character. Rebecca Banatvala plays both love interests, effortlessly shifting between cool likeability and a chilling masculine energy. In Jennifer Fletcher’s movement direction, Banatvala is an ever-changing presence in the traverse space, emerging out of dark corners and becoming a kind of tangible shadow.
Sap was one of the biggest hits at the last Edinburgh Fringe Festival, running for the full month in Paines Plough’s in-the-round venue at Summerhall. Having been lucky enough to see it both in Edinburgh and now in London, I’d be inclined to say it was more effective in-the-round than in traverse — the former lent it an extra sense of claustrophobia, and allowed the mirrored floor to be more visible. However, I also found the show to be both funnier and darker in its touring iteration, the performances going even deeper than in its first staging.
This is a show that you could think about for hours — it’s hard to believe this is Rafaella Marcus’ first full-length play, as the writing is so detailed and clever. Sap requires no prior knowledge of the Greek myth it is loosely based on, but instead allows this background to weave itself into the nature of the storytelling. Surreal, lusciously written monologues diving into nature and a kind of spirituality set the writing apart from typical stories of love and abuse.
Sap really concerns itself with the nuanced experience of bisexuality, exploring how biphobia manifests itself in relationships with all genders. This portrayal is never straightforward, instead carving the eternal challenges of this experience into the heart of the plot. The handling of sexual assault is both sensitively written and heart-breaking to watch unfold.
Fluidly shifting in tone between the light and the dark, Sap is a production that combines smart directing, strong performances, and gorgeous writing into something really worth watching.
Words by Katie Kirkpatrick
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