Run Sister Run oozes emotional intensity and restless energy

Produced by Sheffield Theatres, Paines Plough and Soho Theatre, the play is emotionally raw and full of restless energy. Two sisters, Connie and Ursula, survivors of the care system, have a long and complex relationship, at the centre of which is Jack, Connie’s son.

The play develops in a series of flashbacks – which enables the audience to build up a picture of the damage which has been done to the sisters and which they do to each other and to themselves. Lucy Ellinson and Helena Lymbery are entirely convincing as the sisters: Connie, gaunt, restrained, outwardly successful, always feeling responsible for her sister; Ursula, needy, self-harming, with a criminal record and a chaotic life-style.

Lucas Button is just as convincing as Jack, bullied at school and dependent on a fantasy life at home, and later, as he grows up, morose and resentful.

Silas Carson as Connie’s husband is a menacing presence, sleek, controlling, abusive, no doubt damaged himself.

The set consists of a rectangle of grass on a raised platform, flanked by a series of glass boxes of various shapes and sizes, in which are an

assortment of furniture and items associated with the past. These memory boxes are raided and their contents spread about the stage. It’s an elegant installation in its own right, a place where the characters retreat, and a powerful metaphor for their inner lives. Together with a haunting musical score, it brings out the psychological dimension of the writing in an immediate and unforgettable way; a hinterland which gives the play its distinctive flavour.

Run Sister Run is on at the Crucible Studio until Saturday, March 21.