Mind the Gap – Unity Theatre Liverpool – 01/05/2013

As ushers admit us to one dimly lit half of the Unity Theatre’s intimate upstairs studio performance space, we are asked to move down the platform and keep clear of the yellow line. With the background rumble and recorded announcements we know that we’re on a platform of London’s underground and it feels oddly real even though we’re facing a wall of black cloth, and we can almost believe we can feel the rush of hot, stale air as the familiar safety warning of the title heralds the arrival of our train.

Naturally we board the carriage to find that there are just about enough seats for us all, and we face each other across the gangway in polite silence as our journey begins. The lights flicker, the train stops, and an apology from the driver tells us to wait patiently for further announcements.

And so we sit in typically tube-style stoical silence until Nina, a scouse girl sitting opposite me decides to be friendly. Piotr who is sitting next to me is unimpressed at being asked who he is, where he’s from and what he does – I can’t blame him – I agree with his view that these three questions being answered do not constitute instant friendship, and I’m every bit as wary as he is of being drawn in by a complete stranger, especially in an enclosed public space. I keep my eyes front and allow myself a quiet chuckle under my breath as he hedges around her interrogations before reluctantly starting a conversation. He’s Polish and works as a pot-washer in a restaurant, despite being a trained chef, and everything about London gets up his nose; its tube system, its people, its attitudes and especially its pervasive black dust.

Further down the carriage Darren is becoming more and more agitated by what he sees as banal conversation going on when we are stuck underground and the guy sitting opposite him is quite clearly a terrorist – well look at him with his rucksack – it’s obvious isn’t it.

Well no, it isn’t. Faisul is a chemistry student with a clear interest in philosophy, but the textbook in his bag is just further evidence for Darren, who tries to muster support for his argument from his fellow passengers, revealing the tragedies from his past that have planted the seeds of paranoia and eventually bringing Nina to a state of panic.

With individual stories told in a spotlight from the ends of the carriage and the restless pacing of the characters, I was reminded a little of the traverse stage layout used in Joe Ward Munrow’s earlier “Held” (Playhouse studio). However, with an audience of 20 sitting in two facing rows in this space the staging could barely be more intimate, and the cast of four have absolutely nowhere to hide, with the tiniest movement clearly visible to everyone. All give absolutely committed and utterly convincing performances and it is impossible to single anyone out for top billing. Munrow’s direction draws every last nuance of characterisation from all his actors without ever stepping too far and the balance never tips far enough to become melodrama.

This is the third play in succession that I have seen which compels its audience to confront their inner attitudes and prejudices (see my reviews of Joe Egg and Di is Dead) but each goes about it a different way. The piece is described as “immersive” and the fact that the audience are sitting in the same performance space as the actors in the rarefied atmosphere of the tube makes it an intense and very real experience. As we were led down the tracks to safety at the end I had to rub my eyes to reassure myself that I was back in Hope Place.

Nina was played by Rachel Worsley, Piotr by Rik Melling, Darren by Errol Smith, and Faisul by Jag Sanghera.

Mind the Gap, which has just completed a short sell-out run at Unity 2, is co-written by Joe Ward Munrow and Ella Greenhill and directed by Joe Ward Munrow.

Mind the Gap was produced by Liverpool-based Pimento Theatre Company, co-founded by Joe and Ella and Rachel Worsley, all of whom already have firm foundations in the Liverpool theatre scene.