One week to stage a new show is theatre on the run and Bocca Theatrics’ new production arrived at its Friday 13th debut after just five days of rehearsal with director Stephan Boyce. Written by the company founders, Charlie Lloyd and Emma Louise-Price, the performance was an important step in the creative development process ahead of a potential outing to the Edinburgh Festival in 2025. It’s always exciting to see new work develop and in front of a good house at the intimate black box venue, Reading Rep, it was lovely to hear the warm reception from the audience.

In a modern world where so many young people worry about mental health and labels get quickly attached to different forms of stress and distress, it is refreshing to see a play that explores how friends react when unproven accusations start to fly around. Social media adds to their ability to cope and distinguish between the reality and the fake assertions. The consequences of a lack of balance and fairness in how friends deal with the accusations are explored with dramatic consequences in this one act play.

Francis is accused of being a “toxic misogynistic white middle class predator” who abuses a female friend, Sarah, when she decides at short notice to exclude him from a planned birthday trip to the Lake District and he confronts her for an explanation. Her friends, Dean and Mel, naturally side with her and contrive to get Francis fired from his job and blocked from other jobs. His boss and friend of 20 years, the landlady of The Hope Knot pub, Jess is faced with the dilemma of whether to support him or abandon him to try and protect the reputation and financial survival of her pub business. Too often, social media pressures side with the perceived weaker person against the one assumed to be in the position of power without a fair balance of the arguments.

Charlie Lloyd is Francis, the bartender who finds his friendship group falling apart, and Emma Louise-Price is Jess the under-pressure bar owner. Together, they convincingly portray the collapse of their relationship with great skill and emotion building to a powerful strong conclusion. They are well supported by Elle O’Hara as the troubled and anxious Sarah, George Prové as the mate Dean, and Emily Sharpe as his girlfriend Melissa, both torn between loyalties by the allegations. They establish their relationships well and the tensions build as the narrative unfolds.

The play is simply set against black tabs but conveys the down-market student bar with good practical elements and clever use of lighting to signal the passing of time and create flashbacks scenes. The basic structure of the play works well building to some good dramatic moments, although the initial scene installing a closed-circuit TV does rather telegraph the ultimate resolution and leave the audience throughout wondering why Francis does not check the video recording immediately! The scene of the exchange of text messages between Jess and Sarah is very effectively executed.

The rather long explanation of covert narcissism, a form of personality disorder, and its related behaviours of self-interest, a sense of entitlement to special treatment and people manipulation to feed their need for reassurance and admiration, might be evolved in development. It is central to the narrative but felt a heavy-handed explanation. The title comes from the advice if you meet someone with covert narcissism…run! Drama is a wonderful way to explore and raise awareness of the issues from such conditions and this play does a very good job setting out the two sides and the potential consequences and calls for understanding and care when dealing with such situations.

It may have been Friday 13th but the omens are good for this new one-hour play with its fresh approach to modern sensibilities and the need to trust long term relationships and Bocca Theatrics should take great encouragement for what has been achieved in five days and the potential for their new work, which deserves to be seen by more people. In the past, it would have made a very good basis for a ‘Play for Today’ on TV!

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Nick Wayne