The Croft
★★★☆☆ Confusing
Festival Theatre: Wed 25 – Sat 28 Jun 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
The Croft, from Original Theatre at the Festival Theatre, is a peculiar production – acted with the maximum of dedication and impressively staged, but rather lacking in impact.
In the play by Ali Milles, Laura takes her new, much older partner Suzanne to the isolated seaside croft in the Applecross peninsula where Laura spent much time as a child. But their story is affected by the stories of those who lived there before…
Gracie Follows and Caroline Harker. Pic: Manuel Harlen.
Anyone who is drawn to the play by its description in the publicity as ‘a thriller’ is likely to be disappointed; it certainly isn’t one. Neither is it, despite the odd (and rather derivative) jump-scare, really a ghost story.
In fact, it’s difficult to say what the play really is. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course. While it is not nearly as mysterious as it clearly wants to be, parts of it are intriguing enough.
Some of it is compelling – the ruminations on family and memory, discussions on how women who refuse to conform to male ideals are shunned by society, references to myths about selkies. However, these ideas tend to be raised then forgotten about, with their seeming importance never fully explored, and the symbols unable to bear the weight given to them.
welded together
The stories of past and present are presented side by side rather than being intertwined, as if several different plays have been welded together. It tends to be the case that one story is developed for a while, then dropped for another; the end result never quite coheres. Often, it is simply confusing, not helped by the cast’s doubling of characters.
Caroline Harker, Gray O’Brien and Gracie Follows. Pic: Manuel Harlen.
The end result is one of those plays that are simultaneously too short and too long. Characters’ backstories are either filled in by clunky exposition or simply left unexplained. Both the interval and the end of the play seem almost arbitrarily placed.
There is, however, considerable atmosphere in the production courtesy of director Alastair Whatley (following on from Philip Franks, who directed the original, Covid-curtailed run). Even if the various relationships between the characters don’t always ring true, they are all played with skill.
Gracie Follows is spiky and demanding as Laura, while Caroline Harker’s Suzanne, torn between her new love and the family she is leaving, is thoroughly believable. Gray O’Brien’s ghillie David is good at suggesting the hidden depths the play strives for but never quite achieves.
total commitment
Something else that may cause audiences disappointment is that Liza Goddard, so prominent in the publicity, is by no means the central figure. She plays Enid, a 19th-century woman whose story is perhaps the least satisfactory part of the narrative, but there can be no doubting her total commitment to the role.
Gracie Follows and Liza Goddard. Pic: Manuel Harlen.
Other members of the company have their roles to play, not least in pulling off the sudden appearances and disappearances of characters that – along with some lightning-quick costume changes – are one of the most impressive elements on show.
There is certainly little wrong with the look of the production; Adrian Linford’s design, Chris Davey’s lighting and Max Pappenheim’s sound design are all deeply atmospheric.
a little lost
This is one of these productions that would have been ideal at the King’s, where it would have been more claustrophobic and much more tense. At the Festival Theatre, it comes across as a little lost; any tension dissipates, and the lame jokes (selkie/selfie, anyone?) seem less forgivable.
As it is, the production has enough coherence to satisfy its audience, even if it suggests it could have been much more enticing.
Running time: Two hours and 5 minutes (including one interval)
Festival Theatre, 13/29 Nicolson St, EH8 9FT
Wednesday 25 – Saturday 28 June 2025
Daily at 7.30 pm; Matinees Thurs & Sat at 2.30 pm
Details and tickets: Book here.
Liza Goddard. Pic: Manuel Harlen.
ENDS
