Review | Deluge by Bench Theatre at The Spring Arts Centre, Havant: 'Darts effectively between serious debate and humorous asides'

Zee and Tony are holed up in their home as the rain pours down outside. And pours. And pours. And pours.

They have Tony’s sister, Caz, as an unexpected guest and, before long, they’re joined by their neighbour Irene and her wayward grandson, Josh. What follows as the rain falls is an argument against man’s selfishness and wastefulness that is giving rise to the climate crisis. All the time their situation becomes more perilous as mud-slides from the hill behind their home threaten to engulf them.

Penrose darts easily and effectively between serious debate and some light, humorous asides and is supported by a very able cast.

As Zee and Tony, Erin Offord and Roger Niven give a very truthful picture of a marriage; it’s not all sweetness and light and while their love is believable their opposite views of where the world is going and how to rectify the situation gives rise to believable tension. The bad feeling between them is not helped by the presence of the light-heartedly antagonistic Caz, a rather wonderful performance from Liz Donnelly. Occasionally, just occasionally, Donnelly will signal her upcoming punchlines which can deflate the moment, but when she’s spot-on – much more often than not – she’s joyous.

As neighbour Irene, Janette Evans gives probably the most rounded performance of the evening. Her last monologue in particular is warmly delivered and her love/loathe relationship with her self-serving grandson – the very watchable James Andrews – is a fine piece of work from both.

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I found the ending harsh, cruel – my imagination being harder on the characters I’d grown to like than probably was the author’s intention – but the joy of writing is that you take those people where you want them to go and not where your audience think they should go!

And once again I must sing the praises of Bench’s willingness to encourage home-grown work. Keep creating, people; keep creating.

Until Saturday. For tickets go to thespring.co.uk.