FestBuzz

What: Ware­house 364 by Nottingham’s New The­atre
Where: C Cubed
When: Thu 6  —  Mon 31 Aug (not 18)
How Much: £6.50-£9.50

In 140 char­ac­ters or less: “Ware­house 364: Where good things hap­pen to bad peo­ple. Like Cube meets In Bruges.”

A tale of inter­con­nected, but seem­ingly dis­parate, strangers embroiled in das­tardly goings on as a result of some far­ci­cal mis­un­der­stand­ings. Ware­house 364 would have all the mak­ings of a turn-of-the-century par­lour com­edy were it not for the brash lan­guage and mot­ley crew of unsavoury char­ac­ters which inhabit this slightly sur­real underworld.

The show is about the sin­gu­lar part time pros­ti­tute Eleanor, bet­ter known as sim­ply E. Oddly start­ing the show with a mono­logue about loss of inno­cence, child­hood, and dis­tance, Anna Sher­riff plays an aim­less yet brave hero­ine whose fate is deter­mined more by hap­pen­stance than any of her own failings.

The story fol­lows E as she aspires towards a bet­ter life after a chance meet­ing and mis­com­mu­ni­ca­tion with vil­lain Tuffnell (a world weary Tom War­ren), and a fleet­ing glimpse of the money and poten­tial power that could be hers.

As a result, she finds her­self in the gang­land hang­out of mas­ter drug crim­i­nals, (though slightly more eccen­tric and elo­quent than I imag­ine real drug run­ners are), try­ing to escape a maze-like series of rooms, chased by her hap­less room­mate Sally (exas­per­ated mother-figure Laura Wishart), and a bizarre selec­tion of thugs des­per­ate for blood, revenge and answers.

Will Vick­ers is a bit of a treat as head thug Lip­son, whom he has cho­sen to por­tray as some­thing of a Mal­colm Tucker, the anti-hero spin doc­tor from BBC hit satire The Thick of It. A psy­chopath in the true sense of the word, his scathing remarks are far more chill­ing than the rest of his gun-toting antics, and it’s a proper delight to watch his under­lings squirm under his gaze.

The only unset­tling thing about Ware­house 364 is the lack of a moral cen­tre: while I don’t believe any piece of art needs a sin­gu­lar pur­pose or eth­i­cal mes­sage to be suc­cess­ful, I was left doubt­ing my sym­pa­thies for any of the char­ac­ters, and feel­ing slightly dis­ap­pointed that there wasn’t any real res­o­lu­tion to the plot. How­ever, though the sud­den end­ing left me crest­fallen, I heartily enjoyed the ride.

Fes­t­buzz Rating:

Words: Elise Bramich