Enjoy

West Yorkshire Playhouse

As the current trend for reality TV shows seems to grow in popularity, one of Alan Bennett’s earlier plays topically kicks off a West Playhouse season celebrating his work.

Despite being badly received, Enjoy was groundbreaking for its time, testing theatrical convention and challenging the clichéd environment characters first appear to inhabit. Over 30 years after its initial short three week run, it comes to Leeds revamped by the Playhouse’s artistic director, James Brining.

A large wooden set depicting a shell of a house opens out to a front room and diner-come-kitchen in garish 60s’ colour schemes. A projected screen above shows the exterior of the house as someone knocks – a council worker who’s come to observe the Cravens’ lifestyle as part of a mysterious “project”, recording everything they do before their back-to-back is destroyed and they’re relocated.

'Mam' (Marlene Sidaway) is suffering from early signs of dementia while 'Dad' (Philip Martin Brown) complains about his lot and their daughter, Linda (Sian Reese-Williams), is jetting off to Sweden. There’s talk of a missing son with fears he won’t be found and all contact lost if they move but little sign of other cast members in a rather slow first half. After the interval however, everything kicks off and the audience are harshly jolted out of their false sense of security and familiarity.

In true Bennett style there’s dark humour in the dialogue but Enjoy is more daring and surreal than much of his other work, completely upending initial pre-conceptions and occasionally making for uncomfortable viewing. Mam is the source of the play’s humour, early on admitting, “My mother lost her memory, I think” in tragicomic style. She endearingly confuses Swindon for Sweden and tellingly reflects, “He hasn’t struck me in... years”, referring to Dad.

Repetitive “feel my arm... where did you say Linda has gone?” dialogue initially suggests a mundane existence but the sudden arrival of a variety of other characters acts to contrast the pace of the two halves. Their grandson arrives with a porn magazine and urinates through the letterbox; Linda returns with Brian and has sex on the living room carpet in front of the observer while Mam and Dad have cocktails in the Rolls Royce. Neighbours drop in and out with yet more observers who remain slightly sinister in their silence.

Brining signposts later events through awkward family freeze-framed portraits projected above the set as the Cravens’ observer films interior close-ups of objects in their house, all the while providing a rare oral commentary. Clear division of the generations is represented by Mam and Dad’s racist/homophobic remarks, insular existence and aversion to progress: “We don’t want somebody educated in this house."

Enjoy is full of black humour swinging between unexpected sexual innuendo/lewd gags and more shocking hinters of child abuse. It shatters expectations but will have you laughing out-loud in reaction to genuinely funny word play; Mam’s unintentionally witty character and the painfully awkward and unpredictable. Alex Lowde’s set design is ingenious, Brining’s direction suitably unnerving and cast performances perfectly off-kilter, making for a powerful watch that isn’t exactly enjoyable but certainly gives its audience something to mull over.

Enjoy runs at The West Yorkshire Playhouse until Saturday.

by Leo Owen