REVIEW: Trestle, presented by the Maltings Theatre in St Albans

The Director Matthew Parker was due to stage this play at the Maltings Theatre in November 2020 but Covid 19 delayed it so that it became this streamed version from the venue. Like him, I saw Trestle at Southwark Playhouse in its world premiere in November 2017 and enjoyed Stewart Pringle's play which won the Papatango new writing prize. The play explores how an older generation choose to live their lives through the developing relationship between Harry and Denise as they meet each week in the changeover from one use of the Yorkshire Village Hall to the next over twenty-one episodic scenes. 

It becomes a sort of Groundhog Day experience as each of the first twenty scenes explores the relationship at the weekly changeover of the Billingham Improvement Committee which Harry chairs and the middle-aged Zumba class which Denise leads. We never meet the rest of the committee or the class attendees and therefore the action is restricted to the five minutes or so between bookings and the removal of the trestle table used by the committee. In each scene, we learn a little more about their lives outside the village hall. 

REVIEW: Trestle at the Southwark Playhouse

Trestle at Southwark Playhouse Little house is the world premiere of Stewart Pringle's 2017 Papatango new writing prize and it is easy to see why he won the award .His writing has a tender gentle charm , at times almost Pinteresque with its pauses and unsaid reflections, as it explores the developing relationship between Harry and Denise, both said to be in their sixties in a village hall in Yorkshire . It promises to ask how we choose to live in the face of soaring life expectancies and does so through twenty one episodic scenes.

It becomes a sort of Groundhog Day experience as each of the first twenty scenes explores the relationship at the weekly changeover of the Billingham Improvement Committee which Harry chairs and the middle aged Zumba class which Denise leads. We never meet the rest of committee or the class attendees and therefore the action is restricted to the five minutes or so between bookings and the removal of the trestle table used by the committee. But in each scene we learn a little more of their past and lives aside the village hall.