Review: SHOOK, Papatango
Photo credit: The Other Richard
When Shook came to the stage in 2019, it was nominated for 7 OffWestEnd Awards and The Stage Debut Award for Best Writer. The show was due to transfer to the West End but the pandemic meant theatres closed for the first time in a century. Now the debut play by Samuel Bailey is available to watch online until 28 February.
Shook is a hard hitting story about three men who are locked up in a young offenders’ institution. Instead of obtaining their GCSE’s, they got sentences. Now their life is all about trading sweets, banter and killing time, whilst they await the impending responsibility of becoming fathers. It’s down to Grace to transform these teenagers into young men, ready to take charge of their futures. It’s an extreme life production offering us a glimpse into the places that these young men accommodate in institutions up and down the country.
Josef Davies (Jonjo), Josh Finan (Cain) and Ivan Oyik (Riyad) take on the roles of capturing these young men and slot neatly into different male archetypes. Josef Davies presents an anxious inmate, although delivers a spectacular performance as we unpick the reason for his incarceration. His revelation is really powerful and it leaves you on the edge of your seat by the conclusion. Whereas Ivan Oyik and Josh Finan are definitely more fiery characters, they deliver a more top dog personality. However, there are moments when we see these characters, especially Cain, showing us he’s just a teenager too. The dynamics of this group shift and change as they all work through the storyline from one singular room. Shook is a captivating hybrid of stage and TV play that will grasp the audience’s attention. Andrea Hall’s character Grace doesn’t have so much of an impact on the storyline, it’s much more of a masculine play.
Shook is a fantastic story made for the stage; it’s these stories that make the biggest impact. It’s a great opportunity to experience gritty, meaningful stories at just £10 a ticket, at a time when we all have the chance to experience different types of theatre from the comfort of our homes. Bailey is a great voice for theatre and it’ll be intriguing to see what he does next with his work. Shook is a thrilling, highly charged play to get your teeth into!
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Emmie Newitt
To book tickets for the stream, please click here.
