Sun Bear is playing at Park Theatre in Finsbury Park from the 2nd to the 13th of April. Office terror and one-woman wrecking ball, Sarah Richardson revels as the sharp-tongued protagonist, Katy.
Everyone knows that unavoidable someone who is a bit… spiky? Right? Well, in Sarah Richardson’s rowdy, outspoken one-woman play, Sun Bear, here she is. Fully fleshed out as the foul-mouthed, nine-to-five office destroying, Katy (with a Y). We have all worked with them, dreaded them and ultimately learned to steer away from vicious social swipes of their paw or their brazen scoffs and rolling eyes. Sure, such candour can be fun from time to time but not when it suddenly turns in your direction. These people can cut you down in a heartbeat. Shrivel your confidence with a withering look from a hundred yards. All fear the chaotic office witch that is, Katy.
What makes a person behave this way? There is the question that we rarely find the sympathy to ask but one that Richardson, via a great length of emotional turmoil, offers us a devastating insight into. Shifting superbly from character to character with the addition of a small physical motif here or a varied change of accent there; it is performed with such confidence that you feel you are truly looking at a new human each time. Richardson is unrelenting, energetic and snaps from transition to transition with such brevity that we are hauled through a blistering story of a woman so deeply scarred by a toxic relationship that she has no other choice than to raise her barriers so high, she can never be hurt again.
If there is any criticism to be levelled, The PARK90 stage almost felt a little too big for the scale of the production. Full marks for the quality of writing and performance but the show was a little bare when it came to design. At its current size, the piece would do brilliantly at smaller venue at the Edinburgh Fringe (other brands of fringe are available). If it were to take off, and it could, then there would need to be more thought pumped into the overall aesthetic.
This is a small quibble in what is without doubt a brilliantly written and skilfully performed show, which gut-wrenchingly teases out the psychological impact one person can have on another and deals out consistent laughter and pathos in equal measures. Funny, frantic and feisty, Sun Bear is well worth a watch.
This production is also showing as part of a Park Theatre double bill: Make Mine a Double! Twinned with the production The Light House, also reviewed by Theatre Weekly here.
