The four walls of the cosy country kitchen which houses Tim Price's elegaic little play is a deceptively domestic setting for a piece in which worlds are ever so quietly rocked following the car crash death of a teenager.
As Gordon, April and their son Sid recount their versions of the story via a series of devastatingly simple criss-crossing monologues while they go about their daily chores, the raging calm that slowly unravels reveals a sense of barely contained frustration beneath the surface.
April gets by with her concerts in the city, Gordon through a solitary trawl of bars and B&Bs in search of solace. Yet it's Sid, who survived the crash, who provides the social glue between them lest they "stop pretending to be happy" as he puts it at one point.
Set in "a village with attitude" that looks an awful lot like Ludlow, the Shropshire town where the play's producers Pentabus reside, For Once is a sad, funny and meticulously observed debut by Price. Revived for this touring version in co-production with Sherman Cymru, Orla O'Loughlin's production becomes a desperate little dance, where the sleepy ordinariness of small town life is offset by the common or garden tragedy beneath.
As the first opportunity for audiences to see O'Loughlin's work since departing Pentabus to become artistic director of the Traverse, such an assured calling card bodes well for the future. As the parents, Geraldine Alexander and Patrick Driver, present touching portraits of a family all at sea. Jonathan Smith as Sid, meanwhile, makes for a charmingly geeky survivor. When they finally come together, it's a moment of heart-breaking power.
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