Having been fortunate enough to catch a previous performance from the “Oxford Platforms” at the fabulous Old Fire Station in Oxford, we were thrilled to be invited to see this staged reading of Came with the Frame by Mandy Constance. Oxford Platforms is a collaboration between the OFS and the Oxford Playwriting Course, run by the director of this performance, John Retallack. Constance has been part of the course for three years and has already written two other full length plays, aside from tonight’s offering. She came to the course with a wealth of teaching, writing, and directing experience and her talent and heart is certainly evident in Came with the Frame.
The play is a two-hander focusing on the very unlikely pairing of 15-year old Kam and 70-year old Ruth. Somewhat thrown together due to a school project Kam has been assigned, the play delves into how two seemingly disparate people can learn from each other and ultimately forge an unusual yet hugely rewarding relationship from a situation that neither would ever have imagined would unfold as it does.
Renata Allen shines as Ruth, and after seeing her for the first time in Human Story Theatre’s Lizzie on the Fence a few weeks ago, I had already declared that I would happily watch her reading the Terms and Conditions on my mobile contract, and probably be completely emotionally invested. Her portrayal of the stubborn 70-year old living alone in her sparse retirement-home flat is witty, wholesome and quite frankly, brilliant.
Holding her own against Allen’s polished performance, Bella Vickers plays Kam with pitch-perfect accuracy; that arrogance and spunk that hides a childlike fragility of a lost 15-year old trying to figure out who they are and where they fit into the world. The two together are so absorbing to watch, the fact that this was a staged reading was irrelevant – the combination of Constance’s acerbic, witty but ultimately authentic (and hugely relevant) writing united with these two stand-out performances made the scripts inconspicuous.
Add into the mix the subtle music, with the use of classical covers of modern pop songs (notably Robyn’s 2010 song Dancing on my Own) for scene changes and intro/outro music and Came with the Frame is a tale of our times, proving that while young people may not have all the answers, neither do the older generation, but somewhere in the middle perhaps we can all learn something from each other.