Review: Revealed, Tobacco Factory Theatres – ‘A vital, searing achievement that grips you tight and never lets go’

“Even within the pain, there will be laughter. Even within the sorrow, there will be love.” So says Everal Walsh, who plays the grandfather, Sidney, in Daniel J Carver’s mesmerising play, Revealed, now running at Tobacco Factory Theatres until October 8.

Carver plays Malcolm, the father within the family, and the third generation is represented by Dylan Brady, as 16-year old Luther – in what has to be said is a hugely impressive stage debut.

In the wake of a police incident, and intense rioting across the country, these three men are thrown together for a long night in Sidney’s restaurant, Loveit (tagline: ‘If you love Caribbean food, you will… Love It!’) – a place that has always been driven by his desire for people to come together and mingle, rather than the clear business strategy that Malcolm entreats his father to accept.

What follows is at its heart, a kitchen sink drama on a knife edge, managing by turns to be powerful, intimate, furious, warm and funny. From the off, it’s edge of your seat stuff, although, just as in all families, bubbling tensions can be sliced through by a funny line.

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Jay Zorenti-Nakhid’s direction allows the gut punch of the play to hit you, and leave you breathless. Special mention should go to Joe Price’s elegant lighting design, to the wonderfully inviting restaurant set from Amanda Mascarenhas, and to the movement and fight director, Kevin McCurdy.

But rightly, it is the three towering central performances that should carry the headlines. The characters of Sidney, Malcolm and Luther are utterly believable: nuanced, edged with shame, pain and regret, and although it is expressed in wildly different ways, clearly underpinned by love for one another.

There is so much weight to Carver’s fizzing dialogue, but it doesn’t come only from the explosive arguments, or the revelations of secrets finally shared; rather, it comes from what is left unsaid.

Daniel J Carver as Sidney, in Revealed – photo: Mark Dawson

Dylan Brady as Luther and Everal Walsh as Sidney – photo: Mark Dawson

We see the communication breakdown of a child coming to terms with his sexuality, and not being able to voice it; of a scared father not being able to hear it, and a regretful grandfather, not being able to find the words to name how they are feeling, choosing instead the language of food to express love.

This family has been impacted by a cyclical trauma: all the men, in very different ways, have suffered at the hands of their fathers. But it is the absence of a father, when one was needed, and the unspoken truths that can shape, or scar a life, that is the most powerful force of the play.

And as the cast variously come in and out through front and back doors of the restaurant, they go from being present, to absent, and then to an absent presence. Stalking around one another, ghost-like, to bookend the play, we are reminded of the parts of ourselves and our forbears that ricochet from one generation to the next; the traits born in childhood, only to be reflected in adult life.

Dylan Brady as Luther and Everal Walsh as Sidney – photo: Mark Dawson

Daniel J Carver as Malcolm and Dylan Brady as Luther – photo: Mark Dawson

How can these patterns be interrupted? The enormity of the play is to show the capacity of forgiveness and empathy behind the rage. Carver eloquently expresses the black male experience down the generations; the impact of racism, violence, family and communication breakdown, pitched against unrealistic expectations of masculinity.

But in the face of relationship breakdown and chaos, the play strikes what seems to me to be a hopeful note at its conclusion. Perhaps Luther, whose resilience shines the brightest in his family, will be able to cut through the pressures placed upon him, to find his own way through to a more truthful sense of self.

The standing ovation rolled on and on tonight, and no wonder. Like the well-worn walls of a restaurant passed between generations, it’s like holding up a mirror to the cracks within all our family dynamics, but perhaps also to the glue that holds them together.

Daniel J Carver (Malcolm) and Everal Walsh (Sidney) – photo: Mark Dawson

REVEALED (age recommendation 14+) is at Tobacco Factory Theatres from September 22-October 8 at 7.30pm, with some additional matinee shows on Thursday and Saturday, and two guaranteed socially distanced shows. For more information and tickets, visit www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com.

Main photo: Mark Dawson

Read more: Tobacco Factory Theatres reveals casting for upcoming production ‘Revealed’

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