Faith @ Courtyard Theatre – A Review

May 27, 2012

‘Faith‘ is the latest play to hit the main stage of the Courtyard Theatre in Shoreditch. Written by Meredith Oakes and directed by Drew Baker, the play is probably set in or around Bluff Cove during the Falklands War. It looks at the experiences of a cottager and the fighting men whose lives intersect with hers’ during the furious battle to take back the high ground.

Opening to a kitchen scene where Sergeant Spiers (Ian Sharp) nurses his aching feet while Lance Corporal (God) Ziller (played by Stanley Eldridge) cleans his boots, the tensions quickly bubble to the surface as the impulsive and violent Ziller rails against his morose and increasingly ineffectual superior. Throw in shrewish housewife Sandra (Georgina Sutton), likeable but dim Private Finch (played by boyish Alexander Wolfe, who is responsible for most of the unwitting comedy moments of the piece) and the level-headed everyman, Private Pike (ex-Eastender Charlie Clements) and an explosive mix of personalities is nearly complete. Add in an unlikely enemy combatant and things quickly go from bad to worse…

Faith is expertly scripted and superbly acted – a no-holds barred exploration of situations where weighing up all the options can turn into dangerous indecisiveness, and where blind faith can lead you down a road that ends in the most indefensible acts. It presents a window on some of the terrible decisions that the soldiers who participated in this conflict must have faced. Congratulations in particular must go to voice coach, Paula Jack, who equipped the cast with some very plausible regional accents, and to fight coach Zoe Swenson-Graham who helped to make the more physical elements of the play gut-wrenchingly real.

Faith runs through until 16 June, Tuesday through Sunday, at 7:30pm and I commend it to you! Tickets are a steal at £12.50 to £15. If you go to see the show, do take a few minutes to look around the space – the Courtyard Theatre occupies the building that used to contain the Passmore Edwards Public Library, and there are lots of original features on display if you know where to look.

OK, I do have a minor niggle about ‘Faith’, and its all to do with hair! Sergeant Spiers wears what in military parlance is known as a ‘full set’ – a moustache and full beard. While it’s a very fine example of the type, it’s also completely wrong – only a handful of sergeants in very particular roles are allowed to grow beards in the British Army. A common or garden sergeant who had access to a razor and fresh water would be expected to shave, lest he find himself up on a charge…

UPDATE: I have now discovered that the beard is designed to disguise Ian Sharp’s rather boyish appearance – apparently he has cute little dimples when he smiles. Hardly appropriate for the role of a stern Sergeant!