Dark twist in drama at pop-up theatre

Small worlds: Hard Graft’s Grass features (l-r) Alistair Hoyle, Susie Mandelberg and Ben Bland - and the audience.

GRASS

Mumps, Oldham, to October 17

As he proved last year with the quirky and award-winning comedy “Thick as Thieves”, writer Mark Whiteley has an ear for rough and tumble dialogue and a flair for showmanship.

Like the previous show, we’re back in another pop-up, former shop-turned-theatre (by designer Celia Perkins) at Mumps, next to the Kava Cafe, which serves as the interval bar. The 50 or so seats make it the most intimate theatre space in the area.

“Grass” starts as if it might, like last time, be a funny light drama about a couple of small-time crooks: dealer Caz (Ben Bland), who smokes a little weed and sells knocked-off trainers, and his friend Barry (Alistair Hoyle), who cases houses for burglary by offering to assess their alarm worthiness.

But the mood changes after half an hour and the light play about a couple of scallywags becomes an altogether darker piece about intimidation and fear, all the more immediate by being staged in such a small space (which stands in for Caz’s flat).

The boys meet middle-class, slightly naive Sadie (Susie Mandelberg), and they go to the pub — where Barry is savagely beaten (off stage) by sociopathic thug Liam (Zach Lee), who then wages a war of intimidation and fear to make sure the boys don’t testify — at least not to anything too serious.

At first Caz plans to stay away from helping police (in the form of friendly beat copper Ted, David Walker), much to the disgust of Sadie, who believes they should testify. A visit from Zach with a can of petrol and a steely glint in his eye make her see things differently and him step-up to try to keep her safe.

The episode is based, says Whiteley, on a real event in his youth that left a sour taste: he wanted to do the right thing but knew he would come out of it badly. His solution then was to run away. The play handles things slightly differently and the shift of pace and story part-way through throws the audience a curve they aren’t expecting.

That the intimidation seems all too real is a mark of the innate strength of the writing, and if the work as a whole seems very slightly underwritten, this is still an entertaining piece made all the more powerful by its theatrical fancy footwork and unusual setting.