A Lady of Substance

Cassandra – a recently bereaved middle aged poet – and Jasmin – a homeless sixteen year old girl – strike up an unlikely  friendship after the latter breaks into the former’s flat. The next evening when Jasmin turns up at Cassandra’s home with a lot of cocaine, a night of hip hop poetry mayhem ensues. 

This play is a tale about different approaches to damaged lives which hopes to redeem and unite them, through passion and art. Unfortunately, the dialogue verges on awkwardness with its poor rendition of Jasmin’s streetwise slang, and the play could have done with a really good edit, as the pace drags at times. Although Jasmin is the far more likeable character, as Cassandra seems closed-minded and snobbish, the play is only really fluent in the poet’s language in the end, with its frequent literary allusions and adulation of artistic pursuits. 

This new play also suffers from embarrassing mum syndrome that involves your mum rapping and your best friend getting drunk and MC-ing the words of Blake’s 'A Poison Tree' over a nondescript two-step beat. Both these scenes are amongst the most cringe-inducing I’ve seen in theatre and do, unfortunately, overshadow one’s memories of the show.