Essex meets the BT Studio: Beachcombing

The latest play from the magical Jack Clover is completely mesmerising. Beachcombing takes over the intimate space of the BT Studio and turns it into, of all things, Essex.

But this is an Essex far removed from TOWIE. This is the Essex on the edge of the North Sea, looking over to the Hook of Holland. This is the Essex of dwindling church congregations, of fish and chips, and of community parades.

“I hate trying to sell God,” says the vicar, “and people hate having God sold to them”. But, despite the Christian overtones, this story is really about his relationship with seventeen-year-old Amy, who is played by the astonishing Aoife Cantrill.

The two meet in the church at night: the sleepless vicar is praying to his wife, and Amy is planning to stay, armed with sleeping bag and Tangfastics.  They become unlikely companions.

Cantrill also plays the vicar’s dead wife, Helena, in flashbacks. As Amy becomes Helena, and the vicar becomes Amy’s abusive father, their similarities and differences become ever more apparent and the boundaries between acquaintance and intimacy are confused.

This play speaks of love, bereavement, and family difficulties, all played out in the eye of the ever present sea.
Emotions that cannot be captured in words are explored through beautiful and perfectly balanced sets of choreography – something that is very hard to do well.

So get yourself to the BT by Friday to see Beachcombing – and somebody please give Jack Clover a contract.