ajhlovestheatre

THE CORD

written and directed by Bijan Sheibani

Bush Theatre, London – until 25 May 2024

https://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/event/the-cord/

Family dynamics, male fragility and the delicate balance of parenting come under the spotlight in this quietly compulsive new play by Bijan Sheibani. The title seems initially to be about the unseen but omnipresent connection between mother and child, two generations of which are on stage here, but Sheibani is on about something even more complex.

New parents Ash (Irfan Shamji) and Anya (Eileen O’Higgins) are having what would appear to be fairly standard challenges in the aftermath of the birth of their new baby boy, although Ash seems unusually preoccupied with his perceived lack of involvement from his own mother Jane (Lucy Black) while Anya’s parents seem much more ‘hands on’. To the onlooker, Jane seems to be doing just fine, offering love and advice but giving the fledgling parents room to breathe and discover, but Ash keeps pushing it. The only other cast member is cellist Colin Alexander whose exquisite, sometimes foreboding musical contribution runs under dialogue like an expressive, but never obtrusive, film score.

Sheibani’s highest profile credit is probably as writer on Netflix’s One Day, and his dialogue for The Cord has a naturalistic quality that could work equally well on film or TV as in the Bush’s intimate auditorium. Being in the theatre gives it an extra frisson though, so that loaded small asides and build-ups from normal conversation to full scale row become authentically compelling. His spare, cool, mime-infused staging (there are no props at all) plays out on Samal Blak’s muted, pared-down set almost like a ritual, with actors entering the raised space to play their scenes then sitting on the sidelines watching.

Interestingly, Sheibani makes Ash the most self-absorbed character, the sort of man-child who makes everything about him, perceiving wounds and slights where none exist, while the two most important women in his life struggle and strain. Shamji has an innate likability and cuddly Everyman quality that ensures he’s almost never entirely unsympathetic but his constant “what about me” whingeing is a curious choice. Shamji’s flatly naturalistic line delivery at first seems so disengaged and throwaway that it’s hard to get a handle on him, but he manages Ash’s furious flailing and hyper-neediness beautifully, even if it’s still not easy to fully warm to him.

Gently magnetic Eileen O’Higgins accurately captures Anya’s wonder and fatigue at being a new mum then moves powerfully into anger and disbelief at Ash’s failure to support. Lucy Black, so good in Sheibani’s staging of Till The Stars Come Down at the National earlier this year and every bit as fine here, is really terrific as Jane: practical, warm but unsentimental, sometimes a little fractious, and battling an unspecified pain that sometimes sees her doubled up in agony while her unaware son rages down the phone at her. Black delivers astonishing work, completely truthful and tapped into a complex well of emotion that feels 100% accurate. It seems that Jane suffered from severe post-natal depression after Ash’s birth, which explains somewhat his ongoing anxiety, and the look on Black’s face when her adult son brings it all up to her as his own family unit teeters on the brink of collapse, is unforgettable.

This is a play that looks deceptively simple on the surface but haunts and sears in its sometimes uncomfortable depiction of the way people who genuinely love each other can also perpetrate great hurt, even without thinking, and of the almost mystical bond between parents and their children. It’s suffused with a lovely rueful humour and an unshowy but persuasive theatricality. Writers directing their own work can sometimes come a bit unstuck, leaving room for laughs that an audience doesn’t always rush in to fill for example, but Sheibani has done a delicate, impressive job here. I’m not a parent but in the space of eighty minutes I went from reasonably engaged to deeply moved. Recommended.