The 2025 project from Ardent Theatre, Drifting, presents the culmination of the company’s work with Ardent8, a group working-class performers given significant professional and financial support.
Written and directed by Andrew Muir, Drifting is set in an unnamed coastal town wrapped in ‘sea mist’ (what some of us might know as the ‘fret’). It offers an otherworldly atmosphere for Young Man and those around him.
Aged 26 and five years into a job as a shelf-stacker, Young Man longs to escape to the city. His parents are just as trapped, with Father remembering past glories as ‘taxi driver of the year’, and Mother worrying about the right thing to say.
The ‘city’ is held up as a big, mysterious bauble, one to fear and survive. In the words of the Arcade Assistant, you shouldn’t ask too many questions there.
For Work Colleague and Manager in the store, the mundane is safe, secure and offers a sense of freedom. They (at 26 and 23, respectively) have life more or less mapped out, without change.
Young Man and Girlfriend joke about changing their lives for good, a ten-pound note offering scope to dream in a world where a significant expense can hurt.
Drifting is often absurd, placed in an industrial set (by Bethan Wall) of scaffolding and ladders, with scattered sand representing the beach. Actors sit at the back of the stage at their ‘dressing tables’ offering a layer of make-believe to proceedings.
Muir’s text is about change but also about challenge, not only for his characters but also for the audience to make some sense of the stories both on- and off-stage.
The eight actors who make up Ardent8 (Toby Batt, Olivia McGrath, who plays the mysterious ‘Stranger’, Trae Walsh, Olivia Israel, Phoebe Woodbridge, Yarrow May Spillane, Amirah Abimbola Alabere, and Lewis Allen) are clearly comfortable as a unit.
Their performances offer a carefully constructed comment on life in the provinces, with little money or prospects unless you leave. The metaphor of Young Man (Walsh) being unable to climb a ladder is a little obvious, but still potent.
As a working-class creator myself, I can see how the pull of grass greener than your own can galvanise the young, even if you can’t follow it. For Drifting‘s Girlfriend, obligations at home stop her acting on her dreams.
Far from the usual ‘social problem’ work associated with ‘class’, Drifting is an accomplished, provoking and often infuriating play. Keep an eye on Ardent – and this year’s Ardent8 cohort.
I’m giving this 4 stars.
Drifting runs for one week only at Southwark Playhouse Borough, to the 22 Nov, with tickets here.
Image credit: Mark Douet