A creepy isolated farmhouse. Family tension. Divorce. Insolvency. Co-dependency. A dreadful secret in the cellar....and an ice-cream van. Hundreds and Thousands tackles some ugly topics, with brutal and shocking consequences. Are audiences ready for white knuckles and churned stomachs?

It’s always a pleasure to see a project bloom from uncertain beginnings to a fully fledged creative fruition. Hundreds and Thousands is a play by Louise Ramsden which was chosen by Lisa Spirling, one of our Creatives in Residence as a production she’d like to direct. Back in 2009, following a grant from the Arts Council to explore the script, The Hospital Club studio played host to a rehearsed read through of Ramsden’s play. The focus at the time was on sound design, so four actors sat on chairs and delivered the text with enough characterisation that it proved a gripping presentation and an exciting prospect. Was it too dark for a West End stage? In an age where human trafficking is a global problem, are people ready for a dark comedy that riffs on modern slavery?

Since graduating from our CiR scheme, Lisa Spirling has formed a theatre company called Buckle for Dust. She’s attracted an impressive team comprising of Claire Birch as Creative Producer and Lou Ramsden as Co-Artistic Director. The company have teamed up with the English Touring Theatre to stage Hundreds and Thousands at the Soho Theatre. Ramsden’s play is largely concerned with relationships, how we navigate them, the compromises we’re prepared to make in order to maintain them and the damaging co-dependence that can stem from those dynamics.

In what seemed like an incredible coup from a PR perspective, Buckle For Dust managed to secure two former cast members from Eastenders, namely Lacy Turner, who bagged a staggering 33 awards while playing Stacy Slater in the BBC soap and Stuart Laing who played the sneaky Rob Minter. Sadly, Turner was forced to bow out due to laryngitis and while we’ll never know what she might have brought to the role, her brilliant replacement, Nadine Lewington doesn’t come with the baggage that’s inherent and occasionally unshakeable after playing a popular soap character for six years.

Sukie Smith plays Lorna with a wholly believable mix of bitter determination and crippling insecurity that can blind a person to the unsuitability of a partner. She carries off this emotional cocktail with apparent ease, with just the right amount of girly squirming when flattered by her unlikely beau. Lorna’s psychological journey is one which the audience must invest in order to buy the somewhat fantastical premise which while utterly modern, boasts a splash of Brothers Grimm and an air of Lars Von Trier via Tim Burton.

Lorna (Sukie Smith) is slightly awkward, suffering low self esteem and desperate to have kids. She moves in with her boyfriend Allan (Stuart Laing) after only 6 months and this merely serves to highlight his isolated, unconventional and ultimately criminal behaviour. Laing imbues the pathological loner with an unbridled sexual hunger, barely restrained violence and a manipulative intelligence that disarms and unravels everyone around him. Oh, and he drives an ice cream van, despite seeming like someone who rather eat a child than make one happy.

Robert Wilford plays Jonathan, Lorna’s protective, but drippy brother who’s understandably freaked by his sister’s choice of lover. Wilford perfectly captures that stiff mix of middle class liberalism, snobbery and emasculated pride. In many ways, he mirrors the discomfort of the audience, who let’s face it, are more likely to be Guardian-reading city folk with a fondness for the arts than farmhouse dwelling loners who flog choc ices and never open the curtains. Occasionally stealing the show is Nadine Lewington who plays Tiggy, the other woman in Allan’s life. As much of the play’s tension and vibe relies on incremental revelation, it’s probably best not to dwell on the details of Allan and Tiggy’s relationship. If you really do fancy a bit of spoiler you can read my review of the 2009 read through.

It’s long been Lisa Spirling’s ambition to direct Hundreds and Thousands, so she has an understanding of the text and a love of its language that’s evident in this production. The Soho Theatre Upstairs is not so much a theatre space as an attic with a ceiling low enough to worry hens, but in many ways, it’s the perfect space for this claustrophobic, intense and queasy theatrical ride. It’s refreshing to see a play which challenges the audience with shifting moral quandaries and revels in a prose which stirs the imagination and provokes grim imagery. While the plot rests on the gradual unveiling of cruel and grisly scenario, most of the horror happens off stage. That you walk away feeling like you’ve seen more than you actually witness on stage have is a testament to the ominous mood and richly textured performances. With a superb ensemble cast and Spirling’s taut direction, Hundreds and Thousands manages to chill to the core as beads of anxious sweat gather on the brow. Theatre doesn’t do that often enough.

 Buckle for Dust in association with English Touring Theatre present Hundreds and Thousands at Soho Theatre by Lou Ramsden from  21 June - 16 July 2011

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Main photo: Graham Michael