Theatre / Balkanophile
Review: Coastal Defences, Brewery Theatre
Last October, the peaceful anti-government protests in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia were in full swing. Despite being Europe’s largest pro-democracy protests since the fall of Communism, though, the 2013-14 Bulgarian demonstrations got little coverage over here.
That same month, however, BBC3’s documentary Booze, Bar Crawls and Bulgaria showed how the nation’s Balkan coastline was fast overtaking Magaluf as the favourite party destination for young Brits.
So while Bulgaria went through seismic shifts in its government and human rights, the images being beamed to us were those of a sun-kissed, anything-goes fleshpot.
is needed now More than ever
Bristol playwright and Balkanophile Tom Phillips has taken this paradox and created a witty, lyrical and – importantly – accessible portrait of a country most of us know so little of.
A cast of three – the excellent Jill Rutland, Nic McQuillan and Chris Bianchi – each play a small handful of characters whose lives interlink, both in the thick of the Sofia protests and at a Black Sea resort at risk of being overrun by those Brit boozers that BBC3 found so amusing.
From a wideboy Black Sea hotelier trying, by means fair or foul, to increase his influence in business circles, to an English lad whose Facebook flirting has brought him unwittingly to the epicentre of the demos, Phillips and director Nik Partridge give us an instantly lifelike array of characters.
They are all dealing, as best they can, with Bulgaria’s slow transition from post-Communist troubles to (they hope) a nation with a more enlightened government and more choice over its own destiny.
Perhaps the most fascinating example of these complex priorities is Bianchi’s dour security guard Boyko, who is prepared to do almost anything for his dream house and garden – even discrediting the demonstrations beloved by his own daughter.
Phillips is a gifted writer, and plenty of the dialogue brings you up short with its lyricism, humour or both. That he has also managed, in around 75 minutes, to give us a picture, both panoramic and intimate, of a little-known country in deep transition, is remarkable.
Coastal Defences is the second in Theatre West’s annual autumn new-writing season, and finds the Bristol company on typically fine form.
Photos by Farrows Creative.
Coastal Defences is at the Brewery Theatre until October 18. For more information and to book tickets, visit www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com/shows/detail/coastal_defences/.
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