Crushed

Overview

We think, as humans, that our past is behind us, our future is in front of us and our present is with us, when in fact it is all in flux and with us at the same time. This realisation is one of the first to occur to Melita Rowston's characters in Crushed, currently on at New Theatre's Spare Room in association with Chester Productions.

Kelly (Lucy Miller) — known as Jelly Kelly in her youth due to her, uh, weight issues — has returned to her home town to reignite the campaign to find her best friend, Susie, who went missing 22 years ago. She meets with two former high school lovers and friends, Jason (Jeremy Waters) and Dazza (Sean Barker), to form the worst kind of high school reunion.

The interesting part of this play is how it explores the functioning of memory. Malleable white matter changes the past in our minds — and for these three, it changes their plea. Kelly remembers her best friend Susie differently from how the boys do. Arguing over Susie's favourite flowers and her favourite band and discovering that she set up her first sexual encounter, Kelly sees things come to light that she had never imagined.

There is a lot to be said in this play and it doesn't fully deliver, from the inquest to the unrequited love and, of course, the running-away-from-the-past motif. I found it hard to empathise with the characters and their hardships. Whether it was to do with perhaps forced or rushed development or the fact that the characters were themselves confused, I didn't truly feel for them. That said, the actors were focused the whole time and entertained the audience (especially the front row). There's also a beguiling set that morphs between a memory landscape, a bus stop and a police interrogation room, and makes interesting use of screens.

I did find myself wanting to know what happened to young Susie, merely a sweet 16-year-old offering her cherry on a late night. Running for 90 minutes without an interval, Crushed is short, sweet and does the independent theatre scene proud.