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Life on the edge . . . of a bed
Playwright Rob Joiner, left, as Boz in rehearsal for Without a Hand to Hold with fellow actor Matthew Brockington who plays Cank Without a Hand to Hold mac *** This two-hander is very much about life
on the edge. Bos (played by Rob Joiner, who also wrote the play) and
Cank (Matthew Brockington) are two men sharing one flat and one bed –
although never actually sleeping in it at the same time. Indeed they pass every 12 hours when either Bos
returns from his day shift as a hotel porter and kicks Cank out of the
bed or Cank returns from his night shift as a security guard and does
the same to Bos. Their meagre existence is made all the harder by
the fact that both suffer from mental illness and a difficulty facing
the rest of the world. Without a Hand to Hold is certainly
cleverly written so that we gradually realise that all is not quite what
it seems. Where initially it appears that Bos is the more
dominant of the two, we gradually realise that it is Cank who is moving
forward, threatening to leave his friend behind. There is a sense of claustrophobia to the drama.
Not only do we never see outside this one bedroom flat, we also learn
very little else about the lives of these two men. Their pasts, the
reasons for their dependency, the details of their mental health are all
very much ‘out there' while we are holed up ‘in here'. Directed by Kerry Murdock, there is no let-up
and, while there is plenty of comedy, it is a bitterly dark humour which
seeps through the sorry state of their lives. The language is certainly colourful with a good
many F-words and C-words peppering the action which, while it helps us
to see Bos's frustration, won't be to everyone's taste. This is Rob Joiner's first play to be staged and
it some ways it shows. He has clearly thrown his heart and soul into the
work which deals with some very raw emotions. A good deal of insecurity
is being laid bare before the audience. But that is not necessarily a
negative and it will be interesting to see where Joiner goes from here. Diane Parkes
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