Starters Order

The Lantern Theatre has long been one of Nether Edge’s best kept secrets, a delightful ‘boutique’ 84 seater, all Victorian plush and gilt with an exquisite freeze of leaves and berries wreathing the proscenium arch. For many years plucky am-drammers the Dilys Guite Players have been the main attraction on stage but in the last year innovators Matt Risby and Martin Derbyshire have moved in with the ambition of turning the Lantern into a thriving arts centre, showcasing a range of professional work alongside the amateur fayre. Spring/Summer 2012 marks the first fully professional season and Order, penned by Risby and Derbyshire, is the Lantern’s debut home-grown professional production.

Taking advantage of the intimacy of the space, Order is a two hander in which a young woman, Katie, and a middle-aged man, Robert, circle each other on the small stage as we trace the history of their relationship from office small–talk to dangerous obsession.  In a cleverly-judged structure, we join the pair in the present day and are left to guess why their meeting is so awkward, what her joke present of a toy puppy signifies and why the setting feels strangely institutional. We then travel back in time and begin to join the dots.  At their first meeting Katie has an easy flirtatious manner which introvert Robert immediately responds to, as he becomes infatuated by her care-free charisma delusion sets in – he begins to believe they are star-crossed lovers rather than a friendly young woman and a lonely older colleague. So consumed by this fiction, he becomes her stalker and eventually her denials of his dreams can only end in violence.

This toxic chemistry makes for a gripping evening, the gradual revelation of Robert’s obsession ratchets up the tension from office banter to chilling confrontation, both written with an equally good ear. Samantha Robinson is excellent as Katie, we visibly watch her youthful sparkle fade through her ordeal, as her girlish wit turns to bitter irony. Richard Marriott is a convincing obsessive, his easy charm quickly curdling to menace. Ruth Carney directs the production as efficiently as a chess match where each player risks the game with every move. If there’s one disappointment it’s that the final twist doesn’t quite give you the sickening kick in the stomach it promises, betraying that the concept might not be quite as strong as David Harrower’s disturbing 2005 play Blackbird with which Order shares some similarity. That said, it’s a promising start to a welcome addition of another producing house in Sheffield.

Order runs until Saturday 25^th February. More details here.