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Bear with me: Sun Bear @ParkTheatre

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If The Light House is an uplifting tale of survival, Sarah Richardson’s Sun Bear gives a contrasting take on this. Sarah plays Katy. We’re introduced to Katy as she runs through a list of pet office peeves with her endlessly perky coworkers, particularly about coworkers stealing her pens. It’s a hilarious opening monologue that would have you wishing you had her as a coworker to help relieve you from the boredom of petty office politics.  But something is not quite right in the perfect petty office, where people work together well. And that is her. And despite her protesting that she is fine, the pet peeves and the outbursts are becoming more frequent. As the piece progresses, maybe the problem lies in a past relationship, where Katy had to be home by a particular hour, not stay out late with office colleagues and not be drunk enough not to answer his calls. Perhaps the perky office colleagues are trying to help, and perhaps Katy is trying to reach out for help. It has simple staging

Things ain't wot they used to be: CTRL+ALT+DELETE @CamdenPT

 
Everything is fiction. Whether it is our post-truth politics, which led the country out of the European Union on the premise of an imaginary amount of money going to the NHS and immigration being cut. Then there is our partisan newspapers shouting political hysterics mixed with celebrity stalking to an ever-dwindling audience. And then there is what we tell ourselves. So is the premise of Emma Packer's fascinating CTRL+ALT+DELETE. It is having a short run at the Camden People's Theatre. 

Written and performed by Packer, she first introduces us to Amy. A child of the 80s she reminisces about her love of sport and knowledge of the Spice Girls. She also had a loving relationship with her grandfather and the time they spent together. 

But things quickly shift when we are introduced to Amy's mother. Drinking and smoking prior to Amy's birth, afterwards abuse becomes a pattern. The unsettling part of the piece is how this becomes acceptable behaviour and consequences for Amy as an adult. 

But the past is the past and both of them play down the horrors of what really happened. At times they look back at fondness at those days, overlooking the beatings, alcoholism and poverty. The piece then attempts to make broader observations about the London riots, the financial crisis and Brexit. Are the lies and deceptions that led to these any different? 

As a story-teller, Packer keeps the momentum going throughout its hour-long duration. It's peppered with enough dialect (or to be technically correct, Multicultural London English  to warrant surtitles for the uninitiated into London speech patterns. But it also serves to lure you in before some shocking revelation. 

Perhaps the piece could be expanded in future to make it a two-hander. This would give the opportunity to explore the two characters at the heart of this piece more. Perhaps the message about bankers and Brexit serves to remind us that this has always been a divided country. 

Directed by Katherine Hayes, CTRL+ALT+DELETE isat Camden People's Theatre until 16 August.

Photo credit: David Packer

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