Fake Escape in association with Omnibus Theatre present the world premiere of Cul-de-sac by David Shopland from 27th May to Saturday 14th June 2025 at the Omnibus Theatre, Clapham London.
Think Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf meets Abigail’s Party and you are beginning to scratch this surface of this confident if too lengthy play. Alan Bennett would have had this in vignettes or Danny Robins give it a supernatural twist. Although only one door, there were a few Conor McPherson characters to keep the energy up and if it was split like Inheritance I’d be back for next week’s episode. Someone option this play for TV. So great to be mentioned in such esteemed company for playwright David Shopland. Although I dread reading writer, director, designer and theme tune writer are all the same, and yes, the script could do with the scalpel mentioned in the marketing blurb, but it was wonderful to hear David in the audience of Press Night guffawing as his play was given a flawless performance.
Opening we get the repetitive nature of Ruth and Frank Townsend’s lives and annoying cushion arranging. We quickly find out that suburbia is hell and poorly lit, she’s out of job and he’s very, very angry. Ruth wants to leave but can’t quite manage it as she’s too busy downing bottles of sherry (!) and opening the door to their quirky neighbours – Marie Gilchrist, the vicar’s wife and Simon Waller the youtube loving goofball. Out of the window is the car of the local estate agent parked on Frank’s drive. Everything, especially this seems to upset him. They have all been trapped in a cul-de-sac, literally and metaphorically.
It’s a great set up; we know we are in for a bumpy night and it’s so often hilarious and cringe worthy. The cast give exquisite performances as the layers of their identities are slowly revealed – grief, infidelity, loneliness and far too much booze.
Located in Northwood Hills, Zone 6 London, otherwise referred to as the Middle of Nowhere these people find themselves in the middle: creeping middle-age, middle-class, neither urban nor rural, mid-journey in their careers and mid-journey in their existences. Shopland wants to pull back the voile curtains and invites us to peer through the window at the quiet desperation of suburbia in real time, it seems. The irony this plays in Clapham where the next move is suburbia is not lost on me. The Omnibus Theatre is rather lovely by the way.
The intimate setting of David Shopland’s play Cul-de-sac
Cul-de-Sac gives voice to the broken millennial suburbanite experience and if it were up to me I’d have them all bull dozed. A cul-de-sac should really be more than a dead end but with a rounded or bulbous end for turning around. Stay to the end and you’ll find out.
By parts laugh-out-loud and movingly, deeply tragic. A real tour-de-force of three hours from the actors and well-deserved applause from the by now slightly exhausted audience.
Four Stars – just needs trimming.
Cul-de-sac by David Shopland
Omnibus Theatre, 1 Clapham Common North Side, London SW4 0QW
Website www.fakeescape.org/cul-de-sac
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