★★★✰✰
The heartrending Fringe hit Wreckage from Wildcard Theatre’s co-Executive Director Tom Ratcliffe lands at Battersea’s Turbine Theatre. Kicking off 2023 with a mix of anguish and tenderness, this gripping two-hander is a sensitive and honest exploration of love and grief.
We meet Noel and Sam, an idyllic young couple who seem to have the perfect life, until one morning Noel dies in a sudden car accident. As the audience is taken on a journey through the stages of Sam’s grief, we witness him tackle life with the figment of Noel unwaveringly by his side – sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
Ratcliffe’s writing is strong. The script is well-honed, squeezing a lifetime into 60 minutes with an impressive amount of depth. Intertwining just enough light and humour to offer respite from the darker sections, it is thoroughly balanced and fleshed out.
It is the understated moments of humanity that are the most memorable in the play, making more of an impact than most of the highly emotional parts. A playful scene where Sam first meets his new lover Christian comes to mind, as well as moments that reveal the more subtle heartaches that come with losing a loved one; tasks like gardening, which Noel favoured, are difficult for Sam. The more intense sequences occasionally tip into melodrama, and could be more poignant if used more sparingly.
The performers also shine the most in light-hearted and flirtatious scenes. As Noel, Michael Walters is dynamic, warm, and truthful. Portrayed by the writer of the play Tom Ratcliffe, Sam is pointedly younger, plucky and coy. Their chemistry is palpable, and beautifully directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair with delicate intimacy.
Video projections fill the back wall, treating us to Sam and Noel’s home videos or romantic backdrops of canals and fireworks. These work well when they are the focal point of the stage, but when important scenes play out in front of them, we lose some of the action; there are moments where the actors’ faces are entirely masked by the projections. The generic – and at times slightly comical – image projections are often distracting, and sometimes jar when they clash with the sincere subject matter.
The piece carefully explores the complexities of falling in love again after loss. Although Sam knows that Noel would be proud of him for finding someone new, he cannot avoid the feelings of betrayal. These feelings manifest themselves as Noel, but of course we know that this figure is just an amalgamation of his own guilt, grief and strength. Importantly, Wreckage demonstrates that there is no ‘getting over it’, but there can be getting through it. Noel stays with Sam for the rest of his life, and though the last few minutes of the play cycle through the important moments of Sam’s story – his marriage to his new partner Christian, the birth of their daughter, the death of his mum, his daughter’s graduation – he always celebrates Noel’s birthday.
Wreckage reminds us of the fragility of life and the beauty of love. With a beautiful and important queer love story at its heart, a few tweaks could really elevate this powerful piece of theatre.
Words by Franky Lynn
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