Page 167 - FINAL_Guildhall Media Highlights 2019-2020 Coverage Book
P. 167
11 February 2020
Gut, Barbican, stage review:
‘Thrilling, inquisitive and well-acted’
By Gabriel Wilding | February 11, 2020
Mackenzie Heynes and Sophie Doyle as Rory and Maddy. Photograph: Mihaela
Bodlovic
Who is safe? How do you know? What if you’re wrong?
These are the questions at the centre of Gut, Frances Poet’s thrilling four-hander,
performed by recent graduates of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
The drama follows Maddy (played by Sophie Doyle) and Rory (Mackenzie
Heynes) as they raise their three-year-old son Joshua in the age of Saville and
Weinstein.
Poet’s writing is razor-sharp and questions modern morals while avoiding black
and white simplicity.
Mental illness, distrust, heartbreak, doubt, and pain? Sign me up!
Maddy, the uptight but devoted mum who spirals out of control following a lapse
in judgement from her mother-in-law, proves that love can drive the most heinous
acts when children are involved.
She is a slap-up meal of a character, one that Doyle feeds off with energy and skill.
The creeping damage that doubt can do to someone’s mental health is portrayed
nicely by Doyle, as is the overall sense of dread.
