Cockroach

Edinburgh graduate Sam Holcroft's first work, Cockroach, is a smart, witty play about the extremes created by the scenario of war as well as by our internal biological makeup. Beth is a biology teacher in a class with a group of five bickering teenagers kept in daily for detention. She tells them that if they will only work for their exams they can achieve success, but the boys are obsessed with their own sexuality while the girls, more varied and clearly drawn in character, are dealing with demons of their own.

Outside the classroom rages a war that is decimating the male population. As the pupils study hormones and the sexual biology of the female, moving on to natural selection and evolution, the repercussions of war encroach further. Finally they are required to cease lessons in order to clean used army uniforms for recycling; the women are left staring at scarred and bloodied battle-dresses while one by one the men and boys around them are called up to fight.

Vicky Featherstone’s production provides the "permission-to laugh" element so crucial to enable a shock reaction to the extreme, at times inspiring a great deal of pathos without sentimentality. There is so much to explore and a sense of playfulness that only occasionally loses focus, and the strong cast have a firm grasp of the conflicting ideas and struggles bound up in their characters. If the play changes pace it is a slowing down rather than a frantic scrabble as war takes over, and each relationship is displayed in greater depth. The staging and the movement perfectly complement each other; the motions of the actors are deliberate, constantly communicating their state of mind and inner contradictions, and the alliances and isolations within the group.

While some of the science of war, the survival of the fittest and controversies of gender politics are hammered home quite crudely, Holcroft’s first professionally staged production remains profoundly riveting and exactly the kind of theatre that we are grateful for: one that not only teaches, but entertains and touches. With her obvious grasp of the rhythms of language and a dramatic tension that will leave an audience with so many possible avenues of thought, hers is a career worth following.