Journey to the Edge of the Sea

A Studio Theatre and Salberg Studio collaboration of Journey to the Edge of the Sea – a new play written by Philippa Crundwell and directed by renown writer, director and Studio Patron Barney Norris.

Review in The Salisbury Journal by Annie Riddle.

Poignant, unexpected treat at the Salberg.

It was a wild and windy night, and I nearly cried off in favour of cuddling the dog by the fireside. But Journey to the Edge of the Sea amply repaid the effort of dragging myself off the sofa and going out. This is a poignant play by Wiltshire Creative communications assistant Philippa Crundwell.

Its central character is George, a chemical factory worker in Fifties America – his health, like that of his colleagues, ruined by the fumes he breathes in daily. As he revolts, quits and declares to his wife that he’s going to fulfil his dream of taking her and their baby son to see the sea, we’re willing them on. But we gradually realise he’s been blinded not only by the fumes but by grief, unable to accept that his family died in a fire and exist only in his memory and imagination.

His journey across the States, supported by his faithful friend Sam, is eventful, moving, sometimes comic and ultimately uplifting.

A script-in-hand performance sounds as if it would be clunky, but it wasn’t. The cast, from the Studio Theatre, rose to the challenge admirably, and I quickly forgot they were reading.

In a Q&A afterwards we learned how director Barney Norris gradually stripped away props to a minimum so that the dialogue and performances were all we had to rely on. And it worked.

What an unexpected treat we had.

Studio members of the cast of Journey to the Edge of the Sea and the playwright.