What would you do if you (and you alone) were responsible for looking after a loved one as they slowly passed away…but you were still at school?
That’s the question at the heart of “Corner Shop Sweets”, Three Dot Theatre’s new play currently running at the Studio Theatre (South Hill Park Arts Centre) from the 24th – 26th February.
Unable to focus at home, a young male student (played by Keir Buist) starts visiting a clearing in the woods on top of a hill after school each day, with the intention of quietly completing his homework.
His peaceful surroundings are interrupted by the arrival his classmate, a young woman (played by Orla Breslin) intrigued by the quiet young man and keen to find out more about him.
As they speak for the first time, it quickly becomes clear that both are young carers – the boy caring for his grandmother, and the girl for her father – and that both of them are really struggling to cope.
The boy has the pain of watching his grandmother – hitherto a source (perhaps the only source) of comfort to him – slowly but inevitably slipping away. How do you even begin to cope with that? And how has he come to be her main carer?
The girl, likewise, struggles to put on a brave face for the sake of her younger sister, for whom she is also caring since her mother has to work around the clock in order to fill the income gap left by her father. How will she deal with that in the future, on top of the pain of losing her Dad and the struggle to succeed at school?
There are no easy answers in this play, and one has the sense that both characters will be battling these questions for years to come.
But by charting their burgeoning relationship across the course of the year, the play suggests that light amongst the darkness may be found in the company of others who know and understand the struggles that you’re facing.
It’s a really commendable choice of subject matter for Keir Buist, who also wrote the play. I’ve seen lots of dramas that depict a romance blossoming between characters, but rarely one that so ably and accurately captures just how fragile love can be in the face of overwhelming pressures.
Buist and Breslin do a spectacular job of bringing their characters to life – they are neither too confident nor too awkward, perfectly capturing the shy surliness and assertive earnestness of teenagers falling in love and desperately trying to impress each other without seeming uncool.
And while the play is very upfront about presenting the harsh realities of being a carer – opening with some facts and figures about the sheer volume of young, unpaid carers in the UK, with other factual information sprinkled throughout characters’ dialogue – it never feels like a lecture or a “theatre in education” piece. Yes, it might initially feel incongruous to hear the words coming from the characters’ mouths, but it really just serves to prove that the harsh reality of their caring duties have made them old before their time – you imagine they’ve learned these things in the course of filling out a financial aid application, something no teenager should ever have to do.
With a fantastic set design that really makes you feel like you’re out in the woods alongside the characters, atmospheric sound and lighting design from Niall Casserly and Charlie Herd, and assured direction from Leo Burke, this is a powerful play from an up-and-coming theatre group that I would urge you to see before the run ends.
Tickets are available from https://www.southhillpark.org.uk/whats-on/shows-events/. Photos courtesy of Savannah Photographic.
