Review: Relics, Lyric Hammersmith ★★★★

Siblings, secrets and a stolen painting,

Ben Ockrent’s black comedy has a simple enough setup. Siblings bring out the worst in us at the best of times. Grief brings feelings to the surface, so grieving siblings are a volatile combination on their own. Lob in a difficult decision, the kind that lands on you the moment you are newly orphaned with no parent left to arbitrate, and you have Relics. How do you move into a new set of relationships as adult siblings, with nobody in charge any more?

Sally Phillips as Liv embodies the over-organisation of the first born, complete with planned routines for how to share out the family’s treasures. Very much the younger siblings, Michelle (Charly Clive) and Rob (Sam Swainsbury) quickly fall into line behind her. But the oldest brother, Jonny (JJ Feild), clearly the most successful of the four, has plans he is not entirely sharing, and information he is withholding and is keen to manipulate the others to his way of thinking.

His information centres on a painting that might be by the Impressionist Camille Pissarro and worth millions. But it is also, most likely, stolen, taken from a Jewish family at the end of the Second World War. The painting symbolises the moral dilemma at the heart of the play: Jonny at one end of it, and you do wonder why he has given up on caring about others, and Liv at the other, where the question is whether she cares too much, at the expense of her family, at the expense of herself, whether it has become a shield. All the siblings are carrying pain, and a lot goes unspoken. There is drink, there are fights, there is the cruelty that only siblings know how to mete out on each other. We revert to childhood battles with them in a way we never would with other adults. And underneath it all sits the harder question: what does it mean when the legacy you have cherished in a parent or grandparent turns out to have a heroism that is rather less clear cut than you assumed?

The comic timing is sharp. A sequence built around a total eclipse song sliding into a slow-motion fight, complete with haka and dance, is both funny and moving at once. Chaotic, over the top, full farce, and it works. The physical comedy is also a delight. A hospital bed, a tree, a pumpkin, a wedge of Dairylea, everyday items, all used to exaggerate and emphasise the humour.

What lingers is the layering of family relationships and choices, how the decision any one of them might make alone looks entirely different once the others are involved. The ending is perhaps tidier than it ought to be, but the exploration on the way there is engaging and down to earth. This would lend itself well to a six-part sitcom. These are enjoyable characters, and it would be satisfying to know more of them.

Photo credits: Marc Brenner

How to Save on tickets at Lyric Hammersmith

Check out my article on Lyric Hammersmith discounts for young West Londoners. People who live or work in Hammersmith and Fulham can also get free tickets for First Nights.

Latest reviews:

Lyric Hammersmith reviews: