My Plan For Tomorrow
Match Set
My Plan For Tomorrow
by George Abbott
Enrose Ramos and Spare the Rod Theatre Company at the Golden Goose Theatre, Camberwell until 3rd August
Review by Heather Moulson
With a voice-over that is Nixon-esque, Piers enters the stage. The environment appears to be a teaching room. He switches off the CD player and addresses us, his pupils on a Jobseekers course. (It seems that’s what we’ve paid for!). We have entered the surreal world of My Plan For Tomorrow, director George Abbott’s well-written play exploring, and questioning, the value of success and failure.
Piers, played by Alfie Lanham-Brown, struts briefly around, an archetypical whiz kid, but then he discovers a former classmate, Tomas sitting there amongst us. (The audience does get rather drawn into this piece.) Tension soon replaces confidence.
Somewhat cruel banter bounces back and forth with an efficiency only otherwise seen at Wimbledon, swiftly igniting Piers’ insecurity. It also paints a clearer picture of his character. The moment, when Piers pathetically boasts about a hot date that night, makes an indelible impression.
This encounter with Thomas, played by Chris Capon, is disturbing as it hints at further psychological unravelling and at ultimate failure.
A busier second scene with Thomas, now a prominent comic artist, has Piers figuratively falling apart as he learns that his former adversary is to be the guest speaker. As the star-struck student Rosa, who is attending the course, Rebecca LaFond plays the awkwardness of youth well. However, this is the least tight act out of the three.
The third scene, perhaps the strongest, between Piers and Ian, who is played by Dominic Daniels, truly excels, as these highly engaging actors have a professional encounter. By then we learn that Piers carries a background of disciplinary warnings and drug abuse, while Ian was a counsellor before his own demons took over.
The effective impactful lighting, designed by Alexis Childs, and Rob Sear’s sound design carries the tension along. With a background of sinister blackouts and a subtext of an apocalypse, these are good solid scenes of human nature and a reflection of success and failure. Yet … nothing is resolved.
An elegant, unhurried clearing of the entire set leads into a highly unusual curtain call, in which the actors do not appear onstage to take a bow. We applaud a stark empty stage. The impact of this departure works well, and enhances the disturbing conclusion.
Heather Moulson, July 2024
Photography by Rachel Burnham
Mark Aspen 