Kindling by Sarah Rickman. Park 90, 13 Clifton Terrace, London N4 until 15 November 2025, 2☆☆. Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit: Holly Darville.

Kindling by Sarah Rickman. Park 90, 13 Clifton Terrace, London N4 until 15 November 2025,

2☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“Not worth going into the woods.”

Somewhere there is a good if not all that original play lurking, but this chaotic production conceals it right from the start. It is the hoary plot of a deceased person causing problems for the mourners. The first problem is that in the opening scenes everyone talks over everyone else so making out why this disparate group of women are in the depths of a Welsh forest lost and carrying a ridiculous collection of camping stuff minus things they need. Eventually one learns they are there to scatter the ashes of Mei, who was a friend to all of them. The set by Abi Groves looks marvellous, but director Emma Gersch needs to get the cast to articulate. That Mei is doing postmortem naughtiness is clear – in an Agatha Christie play murder would follow and by the end of act two one feels like committing it. To start with the play is too long. Ninety minutes straight through and things would be much better. They are, of course, the usual collection of different types there to rub each other up the wrong way while Mei's ashes do get scattered but in quite the wrong way. She is taking revenge on them it seems but one never finds out why just as it is never clear how the women got lost in the woods while carting an immense cool box full of drink with which anyone would find burdensome after a couple of hundred yards from whatever transport brought them to the starting point. Then there are the mobiles that run out of power, the failure to bring enough tents, the fairy lights lit by what means is never clear, and the things that go bump in the night which include one of the women's pet dog who somehow or other has followed her there. It could be a passable evening but as it is one loses interest in their dilemmas – Mei was clearly a controlling friend who liked playing them off against one another and this is her last hurrah – let alone finding out why they have come to the woods so unprepared for a night beneath the stars let alone for wet weather. The cast do their best in the circumstances and director Gersch finds lots for them to do but the play itself fails to make one care about any of them. This is one occasion when going into the woods is a journey not really worth making.

Cast

Scarlett Johnson – Cathy

Stacy Abalaugun – Jules

Clara Pouncett – Sue

Randah Beshouri – Jasmin

Sarah Rickman – Rose

Eugenia Low – the voice of Mei

Creatives

Director – Emma Gersch

Lighting Designer – Chloe Kenward

Sound Designer – Esther Ajayi

Set Designer – Abi Groves

Costume Supervisor - Elizabeth Lewis

Dramaturg – Esther Fernandez