July 22, 2017. A handheld missile has brought down a plane over Fulham. It is the terrorist attack we have been repeatedly warned about, Lockerbie and 7/7 all over again. First seen at Theatre503, Stuart Slade’s remarkable play takes six millennials who were injured, bereaved or witnesses to the attack, and shows them struggling to cope with the aftermath. The writing and acting are sometimes so truthful, it is easyto imagine that this is a piece of verbatim theatre about an event that really happened. Alex, a banker, even accuses us of voyeurism. All the details, some gruesome, add to the sense of reality. Also astute are the inappropriate reactions, apologetically recalled, such as the song that comes into Floss’s head as she looks at the corpse that has landed in her garden. Often uncomfortably funny, the play shows the six meeting up in a support group described as “a maimed version of Friends”. The politics are barely touched on. As in the sitcom, they were making their way in the big city. Then the attack happens, life changes, and they have to find a way to cope.
BU21
Trafalgar Studios 2, London SW1
★★★★