“Maths — how difficult can it be?” By posing this question the enterprising Waxwing Theatre suggests it knows the answer many of us might well give. The mainly young nine-strong cast in Ed Bartram’s production handles with aplomb the blend of text and movement that he and his collaborators, the writer Michael Mersea and the choreographer Alexandra Green, have devised for them. But there’s no denying that there are stumbling blocks, the biggest of which have to do with how the central theme is presented to us.
The script parallels the lives of a pair of 15-year-olds separated by two centuries, slipping between their stories. Chloë (Maisie Turpie) is a bright but beleaguered student struggling to succeed in mathematics, a subject in which she could potentially excel were it not for her proximity to unruly classmates, partial neglect by an overly bureaucratic education system and parental divorce. Hinds (Jolyon Westhorpe), meanwhile, is a green but willing midshipman during the Napoleonic Wars. The son of a now-deceased captain, he’s lodged aboard a frigate peopled by fellow officers who for the most part resent or ridicule either his lineage or his obvious aptitude for navigation.
Bartram’s staging is admirably economical, utilising sheets of both paper and fabric, small benches and plywood boards as well as a fair amount of miming to conjure the contrasting atmospheres of classroom and ship. The actors, all of whom are double-cast, provide most of the sound effects themselves. Although occasionally resorting to caricature, they’re a capable ensemble. Turpie is especially acute at communicating Chloë’s frustrations, with Westhorpe a close second as a diligent boy gradually becoming a man of skill and principles. There’s notable work, too, from Erica Bartrum as a bored, lippy but hardly stupid student, Janet Harrison as a stern, veteran sea-wife and Alexander Shenton as both class clown and rigid young officer.
On the minus side, earnest academia tends to get in the way of urgent drama. A long first act is stretched out with a few too many maths lessons, and the shipboard scenes fail to carry much emotional weight. Tangent adds up to a creditably ambitious evening, but is somewhat less than the sum of its parts.
Box office: 020-7383 9034, to June 9