Brace Brace
19 October 2024
Royal Court Theatre
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
BRACE BRACE, currently running at the Royal Court Theatre until 9 November, is a thrilling and touching story of people in extreme situations and how they cope in the aftermath.
Ray and Sylvia are a perfectly normal couple, but when they hop on the plane to start their honeymoon, the unthinkable happens. An attacker hijacks the plane, and they must decide what to do. Sylvia jumps into action, but the aftermath hits her hard. How does one cope with what they had to do in a moment of split-second decision making, how do people deal with trauma and tragedy, and what is left behind when they become different people through what happened to them.
Brace Brace is a tightly wound story, presented on a very simple set of just a ramp with guide light strips, bright overhead lights that flicker wildly in moments of distress, a door to the cockpit at the top of the ramp, and not much more. Drenched in plane noises, the atmosphere is set perfectly in the small theatre, setting the audience up for a tense and distressing story.
Ray and Syl struggle with what happened to them, but in completely different ways. And then there are other passengers, their families, the crew, everyone seems to have a very different view on the near-tragedy that was narrowly thwarted. Delving into many layers of mental health discussions, from psychosis to ptsd, trauma management and grief, paranoia and emotional devastation, it’s an exploration of the human mind, the intricacies of interpersonal interactions and how one event can affect people in very different ways.
It’s a deeply touching, harrowing drama, intense and reactive with a lot of soul behind it. A deep examination of minds in distress and how we all deal with trauma differently. All wrapped into a beautifully dark staging, Brace Brace is a fantastic, if very distressing, show.
