Steel writes without filter or restraint. This is realism at its most tense, most passionate, most personal – and Skuse gets it! He gets the intensity, the closeness, the conflicts, the saucy comedy. He gets the need for precision, pace, punch and loads of energy. And his cast obliges with zeal.

The story revolves around three sisters. Sylvia (Imogen Sage) who is getting married, Hazel (Ainslie McGlynn) and Maggie (Jane Angharad). They are close, though Maggie has been away for a while. They have recently lost their mother and are very supportive of their father Tom (Peter Eyers) a former coal miner who is estranged from his brother Pete (Brendan Miles). Pete’s wife, Aunty Carol (Jo Briant) is a “force of nature” – loud, blunt full of salacious sayings and spicy one-liners which Briant delivers with tart zest. Amy Goldecke is Hazel’s teenage daughter, Leanne and Kira McClennan is her little sister, Sarah.

Their father John (James Smithers) has been out of work for some time. The groom, Marek (Joran Jevtic) is a Polish migrant who has worked his way up. His offer of work to John triggers Hazel’s bigotry and resentment and eventually leads to accusations and revelations that cut to the core of the family and result in heartache, conflict and violence.

The pace sustained in this production is relentless – just as it is when people say what they think, and hear what they don’t want to hear. Even the wait-staff at the wedding reception are affected by the tempers that flare and tempos that falter.

The three sisters are the hub of the story. Hazel has become the matriarch and McGlynn makes her edgy, loving, vindictive, caring, protective, confused … but the strength the others depend on. Maggie has always been seen as a ‘taker’, but Angharad shows her vulnerability, lack of confidence, self sacrifice. Sylvia is the youngest, the most socially and politically aware. She has tried to ignore Hazel’s bigotry, until she doesn’t – it becomes too personal.

What results is a play that lays bare the anxieties that filter into society from political turmoil and does so without any ‘realist’ restraint. This family “lets its freak flags fly” brazenly, shamelessly, breaking the shield of the fourth wall with gritty reality, honesty and pain. The comedy – gutsy and colourful – breaks the tension just like it does in many family confrontations. That it all happens on a traverse stage with the audience just a metre away makes it all the more real and raw.

The emotional energy generated by this production is exhilarating. Skuse, his creatives – set James Smithers, lighting Topaz-Marlay-Cole, costumes Charlotte Savva – and his very fit, energized and completely invested cast expose tensions that are challenging and universal.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

* Opening performance