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A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewFog
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You don’t understand. Once they push you out you’re in freefall . . .
— Lou
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Toby Wharton as Fog (Photo: Arnim Fries) |
Toby Wharton taking the lead as Gary, nicknamed Fog, a 17 year old whose father Cannon (Victor Gardener) has come back from working in the army. Gary and his sister Lou (Annie Hemingway) were taken into care when their mother died 10 years ago and Cannon returned to his army regiment. Fog, in order to blend in with the children, in the home talks in a black street dialect. Here’s the incongruity of a white kid talking gansta speak to his father who has no experience of parenting, just guilt at abandoning his children. The opening scene has Cannon and Gary looking over a slum flat in a run down tower block. For Cannon it isn’t good enough; for Gary it’s the first home he feels is his own since his mother died.
The performances are excellent. Annie Hemingway, rejected by Gary, as the damaged sister with the reputation she got looking out for her younger brother. Victor Gardener is the father who doesn’t know how to be a father and has been institutionalised by army life. Toby Wharton is compellingly impressive as Gary, who will switch from rude boy bravado to enormous vulnerability or touching childlike needs, with a psychological depth of insight into what it is to be abandoned. Stuck with a young emotional age, angry and out of control, as an actor Wharton is as full of promise as Fog is certain of a difficult future. When Gary misplaces his Mario Brothers game we see the child underneath the sassy, streetwise veneer. Benjamin Cawley contrasts as Michael, Gary’s black school friend who aspires to university, a future that Gary does not have and Kanga Tanikye-Buah plays Bernice, Michael’s career minded, bitchy sister who is disdainful towards Fog.
It is impossible to watch a performance of Fog and not be genuinely moved and distressed by the human casualties of the care system. Walker’s direction is tight and realistic. Again the exceptional Finborough has discovered an important play; new writers highlighting something written about too rarely. Many care leavers go into the armed services on leaving local authority care, sometimes because this job is also a home for those who have no base to return to.
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| Fog
Written by Tash Fairbanks and Toby Wharton Directed by Ché Walker With: Toby Wharton, Victor Gardener, Benjamin Cawley, Kanga Tanikye-Buah, Annie Hemingway Designed by Georgia Lowe Costume Designer: Rachel Szmukler Lighting: Arnim Fries Sound: Edward Lewis Fight Director: Steve Medlin Running time: 75 minutes without an interval Box Office: 0844 847 1652 Booking to 28th January 2012 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 13th January 2012 performance at The Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED (Tube: Earls Court) |
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