A Breakfast of Eels: Review by Lucy Farmer

5-star review

Intimate, intricate and insightful- this is what the Fletcher Players’ adaptation of A Breakfast of Eels had to offer at the Corpus Playroom.

Director Andreas Marcou masterfully pulls together the complex yet profoundly ordinary emotions involved in fraternity, as the play follows the joint experiences of Penrose and Francis, learning to adjust to life following the recent loss of ‘daddy’. Portraying the bickering and companionship, uncertainties and constancies that are characteristic to relationships, love in its various forms lives and breathes throughout the production.

The play’s design truly encapsulated a sense of simplicity and homeliness. The sparse amount of set and small stage space meant that every prop and piece of set had to be essential in supporting the production’s narrative. From stacked books to lamps that were ingeniously controlled behind the lighting desk, it felt as if audiences were able to look inside the windows of a seemingly pristine, wealthy London household- only to find that its occupants have nothing but each other to cling to. Low intensity lighting, appearing both naturalistically and expressionistically (through subtle strobing notably at the play’s concluding moments), further enhanced the changeability of the brothers’ existence. 

A constant presence of sound throughout the production, appearing through white noise and raw, emotive audio of ‘daddy’ (and eventually ‘mummy’) singing, further worked to remind audiences of grief’s relentless nature. Only at the play’s end are we encountered with silence, resonating and confronting, just as Francis’ depression has consumed him. Marcou brilliantly portrays how grief’s pain can almost become normalised while slowly decaying the individual experiencing it.

What was most striking, was the individual performances of both Rafael Griso and Jaysol Doy. Penrose’s blend of comedic childishness and insecurity around the direction of his life, was skilfully depicted by Griso through rounded and consistent mannerisms of tugging at his jeans or sporadic jumping movements. Griso had an unnerving yet pitiful way of breaking the fourth wall temporarily with a lost gaze, reaching to audiences’ very sympathies and anxieties – those that make us human. Doy, as Francis, likewise presented an intricately detailed character, carrying buried trauma and internal alienation. Doy’s ability to convey such a disturbed mindset in moments of silence and stillness, juxtaposed by intense episodes of shouting and deflecting, speaks to the adeptness of his performance skills. The chemistry between both actors was palpable, instrumental in the play’s convincing and successful depiction of fraternity – sealed not by blood, but by shared trauma.

The undoing of each characters’ nature and assigned roles within this reconstructed family was especially heartbreaking. The gradual plot revelations, polarised highs and lows of emotion and stark contrasts of movement on stage, worked to craft a reminder of the fragility of life.

Running from the 27^th until 31^st January, A Breakfast of Eels breaks down the meaning of brotherhood and loss. The attention to detail of the acting and design proves a testament to all those involved in the production. An extremely worthwhile watch: moving, painfully comedic and revealing of life’s cruel constancies and startling uncertainties.

Edited by Polly Bigham