Review: Never Let Me Go, Rose Theatre
Review: Never Let Me Go, Rose Theatre
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Is it a dystopian sci-fi tale, a doomed love story or a modern-day morality play? This stage adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s highly-acclaimed novel Never Let Me Go defies genres and the result is a hugely powerful production that leaves you with a chill.
I haven’t read the book – and wasn’t sure if this would prove to be a good thing or bad. It meant that I came to the play with no preconceptions, however it also meant it took me a while to get in to. We’re introduced to a young man who is about to have an operation, he has a carer (the main character of Kathy), but the language used clearly shows something is not as it should be. There’s fears of ‘completing’ after only one procedure. And that doesn’t sound like a good thing.
We’re thrust into a school setting – but it becomes apparent that ‘Hailsham’ is no ordinary place of education. Kathy goes back in time and we see how she bonds with her friends, and the usual trials and tribulations of growing up. But then there’s the weird reactions of some of the adults. And they are told not to dream of future aspirations.
For the first 15 minutes , it’s all rather confusing. The cast switch between adult roles and playing their school-aged selves. And adults playing kids can really grate after a while.
I’d almost given up… then boom. It all starts to fall in to place. The pace picks up. You are in this dystopian hell, along with these clones who have only been created so that they can be plundered for their organs to help save the ‘real’ humans. But wait, the clones have feelings too… they can fall in love, have sex (the teacher’s sex ed class brings some much needed humour)… but it seems what they can’t do is scarper from their fate. They are resigned to it, have known their destiny from a young age, but never really understood what it might mean.
One of the clones is told by her friends that they have seen a woman who looks like her: it could be her ‘possible’ – the human she was cloned from. She is heartbroken when she sees the woman for herself, they don’t look alike. The clones question their identity and the point of the lives. The predominantly young cast is superb and you are easily drawn in to their worlds.
The stage set is a simple one, with the action switching mainly between hospital room, the school and the cottage that the kids go to when they are older. Beds are wheeled in as needed – there’s one particularly well done hospital scene. You know what’s going to happen next but it doesn’t make it any less dramatic.
The subject matter is dark, deep, and interesting. At what lengths will the human race go to to save themselves? These clones could cure the world of its most deadly diseases. But at what cost?
This is a must-see play.
Rose Theatre, until 12 October
A Rose Original Production with Bristol Old Vic, Malvern Theatres, and Royal & Derngate, Northampton
A play by Suzanne Heathcote
Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro
Directed by Christopher Haydon
Photo: Hugo Glendinning
