Open Theatre’s ‘Grandma’s Garden’: Bringing Taboo to the Table

India Thomas, Year 1

There’s an ambient, unsuspecting atmosphere: a string of fairy lights across the stage; a floral sofa; foliage and a chess board; soft lighting. Centre stage, there’s a table surrounded by sofas: a cosy atmosphere. Then The Grandma, referred to as ‘Gogo’ and played by the talented Akna Lamahewa, enters, dancing to ‘California Gurls’. The dancing immediately creates a playful tone, setting the audience up for the utterly hilarious performance to come.

The play is centred around Gogo and her grandchildren, who grew up in South Africa before moving to the UK and is set over a period of a couple of days where we explore the various character dynamics and relationships. But, as we very quickly discover, no topic is too taboo to discuss as the writer and director, Grace Conway, brings masturbation, sex, and sexual health, quite literally, to the table. 

Let’s start by looking at the three c’s: casting, costume and characterisation. The casting was superb for most of the characters and all the actors were extremely talented and confident. Akna Lamahewa played Gogo and spent most of the play in a somewhat revealing dressing gown. This perfectly placed us in her home but quickly revealed her as an entertaining character. Whilst Lamahewa’s South African accent slipped slightly at times, it was made up for by her hilarious lines, which fitted so well with her character. Ginny Davis played the brilliant, sarcastic Edna (the best friend) in a fetching black bob wig (in itself, hilarious). Davis perfected the off-hand, witty nature of Edna’s character and epitomised the student struggle as she procrastinated through her Cambridge exam essay. Perhaps the most talented actor in the group, Phoebe Sanders, played Cousin One. Her lines were delivered perfectly and so cleverly portrayed the colloquial language and attitudes of Gen Z. She came across as a big-hearted but moody and, at times, a nasty older sister. 

Issy Ineson, Martine Neang and Lydia Baggaley–playing the respective roles of the granddaughter, sibling and cousin two–seemed to have smaller roles than the other actors. Despite this, all three confidently portrayed their characters. The costumes were particularly effective: the Grandaughter sported gym leggings and an athletic top, conveying the character’s love of cycling and her energetic and light-hearted persona. The use of dungarees to connote the sibling’s youth worked well, and the PE kit bag dragged across the floor in a state of teenage angst is a scene I’m sure many of us can recall from our time in secondary school! Perhaps the cleverest use of costume was with Cousin Two. She was in neutral-coloured, comfy clothes, yet her character entirely juxtaposed these soft connotations: she was scornful and argumentative, and I loved how the production team played with her character!

I’d argue that the roles of Ineson and Neang should have perhaps been switched; a combination of the language used and the actor’s body language painted Ineson as being much younger than the early adolescent played by Neang and vice versa. However, the acting from all six actors was of high standard, and their ability to maintain such strict characterisation whilst talking about masturbation and vibrators was applaudable.

Whilst on the topic of vibrators, my favourite scene was when the sibling found a vibrator. The audience were in peals of laughter as it jittered across the floor. With the pressures of med school, I think it’s the hardest I’ve laughed in months! The production team was exceptional, and Conway’s writing is ingenious, as clearly demonstrated by the almost constant laughter from the audience. I personally would have liked more of the characters to have names, but this didn’t hamper understanding or enjoyment of the play (just would have made writing this review a little easier!).

Overall, the play was a delight to watch, and for the first play I’ve ever watched in LUU, the bar is set extremely high! Of course, it would be nothing without its wonderful production team made up of Conway alongside Caroline Rauch (assistant director), Yannie Lai Wing Yan (producer), Seb Davidson (set designer), Emily Bell (shadow producer) and Sky Jada (shadow director). Collectively, their efforts produced a stunning play that handled taboo topics with both sensitivity and wit. The character development and set design was superb and the ability to block out and rehearse and then perform a play to this standard in just a couple of months is applaudable!

My final impression: Leeds does know how to do theatre!