“Vincent River” by Philip Ridley
Nottingham New Theatre

After her son, Vincent, is murdered in a homophobic attack, Anita must come to terms with her loss, and the hidden fact of his sexuality, an aspect of his identity that she had refused to accept while he was alive. This grief and acceptance is complicated by the arrival of Davey, a battered and bruised seventeen-year-old boy, who confesses to Anita that he cannot escape Vincent's ghost. Anita believes that Davey has come to admit to the murder, but it is a deeper crime, a crime of omission, that is haunting her son's lover.

It has been a long time since I've seen such an emotional and draining piece of theatre, so much so that at the end of the production, I sat there for a few moments just to take in everything that I had seen.

"Vincent River" left me feeling sick to my stomach, it made me feel angry, and it made me feel emotionally sad. As a parent I am able to put myself in Anita's place and get a feeling of how she felt with the revelations in this play, and that is what evoked all of the above emotions.

The descriptiveness of Vincent's horrific feral like murder hits you like a punch to the stomach, and the actions thereafter from Davey caused anger. Anita's pain was what brought the wave of great sadness.

Philip Ridley's text paints dramatic pictures all the way through this just over two hour straight through play. The actors vividly bring Ridley's words to life.

The story is set in the 1970's but with this set design, stark white, with the costumes also being white, show that a timeline is not relevant and could be a blank canvas for any time and place. We read of homophobic attacks on young gay men and women on a regular basis, so the timeline isn't that relevant, and I think that this clinical white surrounding shows this.

The whole play is the conversation, set in real time between Davey and Anita as we discover what really happened with Vincent, and the lead up to his vicious murder.

Directed by Rohan Rakhit, with assistant Director Beth White and produced by Skylar Turnbull Hurd, assisted by Julia Henderson, I can only imagine that throughout the rehearsals, and even up to Saturday's final performance, there will have been and will be a lot of emotions released, not only due to the play's content storyline, but also due to the incredible passion that these two actors, Olly O'regan (Davey) and Deborah Kehlani - Afolabi (Anita) inject into the roles.

Where both of these actors dig down to get this passion and emotion from, who knows. I looked at some of the audience reaction during the play and could plainly see how it affected them.

There's also a wonderful lighting design for this play, which is very sensory,a s is the sound design. It takes you back to the memories that are being relived by both Anita and Davey, and makes you a part of their life.

The play is not performed very often, anywhere, and I can see why because of the gritty, hard hitting story and the immense emotional involvement that is needed. It takes a special team of production folk and actors to deliver such an amazing and special, as well as emotionally draining piece of theatre. When it is done as well as this team have done it though, it isn't one that should be missed.

Staged in the round, wherever you sit you have a great view of the action, almost like a fly on the wall.

Be prepared to be emotionally hit by the subject matter of this play and the passionate and emotional performances by Olly and Deborah. This production is unmissable for anyone who loves the theatre.

“Vincent River” is at the Nottingham New Theatre until Saturday 30 November.