Tinderbox at the Bush Theatre

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A grisly comedy propels us into a chaotic future world

After managing to hold onto its Arts Council funding, the refurbished Bush Theatre continues its spring season with Lucy Kirkwood’s play, Tinderbox, a humorous but grisly tale of social unrest, xenophobia, and above all, murder.

 

Tinderbox propels us into the late 21st century, into a world where tobacco has become a class A drug, bread is a precious commodity that has to be stored in a safe, and global warming causes a heatwave in Bradford in February – a frighteningly credible scenario.

Jamie Foreman gives an impressive performance as the reactionary butcher, Saul Everard, who clings to traditional British values, and sees his shop as a last bastion of Empire. He has much in common with Alf Garnett, bullying and tormenting his wife and blaming immigrants for the deaths of his two children, Enoch and Maggie, during the 2012 attacks on Stratford.

 

Into this setting, a Scottish artist arrives, on the run rom the authorities. The improbably named Perchik, played by Bryan Dick, has swum across Hadrian’s Channel to reach England and is taken on as Saul’s assistant. Dick plays him as an affable but nervous character, who soon realises what he has walked into: Saul has nothing to sell in his miserable shop apart from human flesh and, in Sweeney Todd fashion, a succession of assistants and customers have met their fate on Saul’s chopping block.

 

Amid the gruesome murders, the set is livened up by Sheridan Smith, who is flirtatious and dippy as Saul’s wife Vanessa, and an inevitable love triangle develops between the three main characters. The other two cast members, Nigel Betts and Sartaj Garewal, skilfully play three roles apiece, each with a different regional accent.

 

By Act Two, Perchik has taken control of the business and has turned it around by doing the unthinkable: he has moved with the times and is making a handsome profit selling halal meat and haggis. The xenophobic bully Saul, meanwhile, turns into a snivelling wreck when the police come to take him away.

 

The satirical elements here are clear but at other times the play is a little confusing. There is continual rioting on the streets of Bradford, for example, but we never get to learn more about them. We also hear Saul complain that “the whole city is the Asian Quarter, except this shop,” yet we see very few signs of this. 

 

At two-and-a-half hours, the play felt very long and some of the more slapstick elements seemed a little outdated but Kirkwood’s comedy still raised a good number of laughs from the packed house.

 

Yasmine Estaphanos

6 May 2008