The Sugar Syndrome

by Lucy Prebble

seen at the Orange Tree Theatre Richmond on 6 February 2020

Oscar Toeman directs Jessica Rhodes as Dani Carter, Ali Barouti as Lewis Sampson, John Hollingworth as Tim Saunders and Alexandra Gilbreath as Jan Carter (Dani's mother) in this first London revival of Lucy Prebble's first play, in which a teenager navigates her way from the often illusory world of chatrooms to encounters with the real people behind the names - encounters which may be more exciting but also more perilous.

The play opens with sounds familiar to older users of computers but probably completely foreign to those who have no idea of the tedium of dial-up phone connections. Actors prowl around the edge of the stage in dim blue light when they are in a chatroom, but use a lower central acting space when in the real world. Though the conversations between mother and daughter indicate a level of technology now long superseded, the issues and tensions in the play are still strikingly relevant and disturbing. 

No-one is particularly happy, though Dani seethes with the brittle self-confidence of an adolescent attempting to find her way, but it transpires that she has had an eating disorder. Her mother is an abandoned wife despondent after failing at a job interview; Lewis is an unconfident teenager hoping tht bravado will help him out; Tim is especially vulnerable after release from prison for child abuse (the exact nature of which s not specified).

All of this - especially Tim's predicament - is potentially explosive; the skill of the playwright is to withhold moral judgement for as long as possible through Dani's determination herself to regard Tim essentially as a recovering addict, as she is in her own way. But recovering from addition is not easy for either of them, and the ultimate success of their endeavours is left in doubt at the conclusion of the play.

The play proceeds almost entirely in scenes between two characters, mostly involving Dani herself - there is one confrontation between Lewis and Tim, one conversation between Lewis and Jan, and only one occasion when three people are on stage at once (Tim being absent). This formal constraint is used to powerful effect as we watch Dani explore and blunder her way through a series of awkward encounters, both comic and serious. The cast convey the bodily unease each character feels, and Jessica Rhodes in her first professional role gives an impressive performance as the lead character, by turns imperious, insouciant and movingly insecure. Amidst her high-energy approach to life and its problems there are touching moments of quietness with Tim and with her mother, as well as a distressing relapse into past destructive habits, all handled with great poise and confidence.

It's an impressive play whose rounded characters force us to confront difficult issues in an unusual dramatic space, written with great skill by a 22-year-old, and here given a deserved and powerful revival.