"Consent" by Nina Raine
Nottingham Lace Market Theatre

Nina Raine's "Consent" is a play about attitudes towards rape, and how victims of rape are treated by the current British justice system. It follows the lives and friendships of a group of London barristers. By day, they prosecute or defend crime suspects. Outside of work, like any other working environment, they socialise and of course talk about work.

Things begin to sour when Ed and Tim represent opposing sides in a rape trial. The details of the case and the tensions surrounding it set off a chain reaction among the six friends, bringing old grievances and new accusations to the surface.In the end there are no winners!

The play, which I've never seen before, is very gritty with some very gritty language; it pulls no punches on that front. Wherever you get grittiness you should always find great passion, and there is plenty of passionate performances from every member of the cast as every relationship is put on a slide and scrutinised under a microscope and then dissected.

Don't get me wrong there are injections of comic value, which you quite welcome because a lot of this play is very intense, and parts of the comedy at times make you feel a little uneasy at laughing because of the tension and unease, created so well by this cast.

Laura Chambers (Kitty), Mark Gadsby ( Edward), Alex Milligan (Zara), John Halstead (Tim), Matt Huntbach (Jake), Charlie Osborne (Rachel) and Michelle Smith (Gayle/Laura) gave absolutely everything in their performances, you could not have asked for more emotion and passion from every single one of these seven actors

Directed by Jim Brooks continues to carry the baton of excellence with this production. I for one would gladly have forgone the interval just to see the play all the way through because of the intensity. Some on the other hand may have needed the break just to release the pressure cooker atmosphere in this production.

Hugh Philip’s Lighting Design and Darren Coxon's Sound Design helped to keep the atmosphere with total blackouts for the scene changes and partial blackouts for the different scenes for the court room and Tim's poltergeist inhabited apartment. The sound, along with blackouts, had a strange soothing effect for just a short time, before the next explosion of emotions.

There is so much that I would, and want to tell you about this production, the intertwining stories and the utter horror of rape, and the rippling effects it has on characters on the interim.

We also get an incite into the way the law works, the composition of the questioning and the clever way that the law has the ability to influence the answers they want to hear, to bring about a chosen result.

Yes, the language is shocking. Yes the story is emotive. Yes the acting is powerful. Yes you should get a ticket, while you can because this is one of the most powerful plays I've seen for a while, and you wouldn't want to miss that... now would you?

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'They swap the crudest of crude language as they pass joints around' - Consent at the Lace Market Theatre

'Married couples with affair-strewn histories and a male with designs on one of the wives'

This is a terrific production of a fascinating play. It’s terrific for the reason we’ve come to take for granted at the Lace Market but shouldn’t – the sheer all-round quality of performance from the seven actors.

Oddly enough, one of the elements that make Consent fascinating is that its characters are forgettable. They are well-delineated, for sure – playwright Nina Raine knows her craft – but in this play those delineations are not massively significant.

Of greater importance in Consent are the ideas the characters toss around, the tricks they use to argue with, and the partial truths and outright lies that go with them.

Five of these people are lawyers, and they’ve simply brought the tools of their trade home with them. All friends, they make up two married couples with affair-strewn histories, and a male singleton with designs on one of the wives. As a group they present themselves with a lot to argue about.

To complicate matters, there are also Zara, a young, very actressy actress (Alex Milligan) and, more crucially, Gayle (Michelle Smith), a working-class Scot, the alleged victim in a rape case. Smith presents us with arguably the play’s major issue: is the disinterested observer best or worst placed to rule in a dispute? What about the victim’s view? (That is, if she is in fact a victim).

The lawyers: Kitty and Edward (Laura Chambers and Mark Gadsby), Rachel and Jake (Charlie Osborne and Matthew Huntbach), and Tim (John Halstead), are all middle-class progressives – North London naturally. And this is partly satirical because, away from the wigs and court procedure they’re all hedonists for whom legal practice is purely instrumental.

They swap the crudest of crude language as they pass joints around. But there’s always the suggestion that they’re trying too hard to be liberated.

An obvious go-see.

Read the original article here.

Charlotte Owadally

11 Nov 19

Such an amazing cast and crew! Definiteley get yourselves down to see it!

Thoroughly enjoyed watching Charlotte Osborne and the whole cast in Consent at The Lace Market Theatre tonight. Definitely going to be talking about this for a couple of days! If you haven't already got tickets, get them!! Hoping to see it again this week!

Em Frances

11 Nov 19

Very proud of Alexandra Milligan and Charlie Osborne. Amazing performances in a thought-provoking play. Well done ladies!!!

Linda Osborne

11 Nov 19

Very thought provoking. Well done everyone.

Paddy Signorini

12 Nov 19

Well done Jim Brooks and your cast and crew.

Wendy Sykes

12 Nov 19

Brilliant performance. Well done to you all.