Written by Simon Stephens and directed by Scott Le Crass, Country Music tells the story of troubled teenager Jamie (Cary Crankson).
We first meet him with his school girlfriend Lynsey (Rebecca Stone) who he has picked up in a stolen car. He needs to get out of town and fast. He plans for them to run away to Southend. At first, she is enthusiastic about this but as it soon transpires why he needs to leave town her enthusiasm wanes and is replaced by fear of him. She wants out.
Cary Crankson gives a gripping performance of the sometimes manic Jamie. We watch as his moods switch from highs to dark threatening and even violent lows.
The play spans 17 years of his life as the consequences of his actions are played out. We meet Jamie again 5 years on. Now in prison, he is visited by his 13-year-old half brother Matty (Daro Coates), who has to deliver devastating news. Matty is more subdued at this point but still, the meeting is tense.
The play skips forward about 12 years. Jamie has been out of prison for six months and is meeting his daughter for the first time since she was a child. Francis Knight gives a convincing performance of a young girl meeting her father for the first time since she was a baby. They meet in a seedy bedsit in Sunderland, and it is clear she is uncomfortable in her father’s company. He is eager to build a relationship with her but she is less than enthused.
The staging by Liam Shea and Denny Goodman’s Lighting gives the play an almost cinematic appeal and really brings the whole piece together.
Country Music runs at Omnibus Theatre until 23 June.
