Therapy. If we’re honest we could probably all do with some, not necessarily the lying on a couch pouring our hearts out kind, but something calm and relaxing to alleviate the stress and worries we all go through. In The Allotment Mandy, a mature student is undertaking a project, putting four people who are refugees and asylum seekers together in an allotment to see if gardening will help them come to terms with their terrible experiences in the war torn parts of the world they have found their way here from.

The play is all set in the allotment itself, through the changing seasons we see the characters progress, Warsan learns English and develops a taste for country and western, Nenad comes up with varying schemes to make money, Fadila ends up steeped in Bosnian folklore, which she wasn’t as interested in when in Bosnia, Siya tries desperately to “become English” and Mandy ends up needing therapy far more than those she is meant to be giving therapy to and throughout we learn each of their stories,  hear about the terrible things they have seen and we wonder what will happen to each.

Many shows might struggle in this intimate space but for The Allotment it is perfect, being so close to the performers and the limited space on the stage really added to the atmosphere, making the audience feel forced together, like the characters in the play. The set is tactile and earthy, different coloured layers are revealed to show the changes in season. The actors have a real treat with this script and the wonderful characters created for them and although one or two accents seem to waver occasionally their performances are so good that we really don’t mind. Normally when I go to see a show which proclaims it will make me laugh and cry I take it with a heavy dose of salt and assume it means I won’t know which to do when, but this really did give me belly laughs and moments later a lump in my throat, one lady at the back was in floods of tears, clinging to the friends she’d come in with. A very good show which while being very entertaining makes you stop and think about just how lucky we really are and realise that no matter how many news articles we watch we understand very little.

Pleasance Courtyard
Aug 2-28 (not 14th) at 15.40