Review: LOST ATOMS at Lyric Hammersmith

As with most plays which attempt to plot the course of true love, the initial furtive exchanges are all important in engaging an audience’s attention and sympathies. In Anna Jordan’s LOST ATOMS staged by the ever-watchable Frantic Assembly team, we are left in little doubt from the outset that this is a voyeuristic and retrospective viewing. The pair who first tether at a coffee shop, are soon bouncing across the face of Andrzej Goulding‘s enormous set, a gigantic stacked wall of metallic filing cabinets, as they dip into drawers to reveal a lightbulb moment from their shared history — perhaps crazy golf clubs from their first date, photographs, a plethora of oversized jumpers, or other paraphernalia from their joint past. Aside from the imposing edifice, two simple square armchairs are used to good effect and serve in the telling of the story.

When I wrote bouncing earlier, it was I admit, a grotesque understatement, for Robbie (Joe Layton) and Jess (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) literally swirl, spin, lean, hang upside-down, balance and cling to the vertical face as they courageously manoeuvre themselves around the set according to Director Scott Graham’s meticulously honed choreography. The dancelike effect is often terrifying to watch but also quite mesmerising. Occasionally perching precariously or dangling by a safety strap the pair seemingly defy gravity (and health and safety directives) to create a quite beautiful visual effect, further enhanced by the sensitive lighting from Simisola Majekodunmi.

A ledge is raised to varying angles at key moments, where it serves as a bed and other makeshift environments on which the pair writhe, perch and slide their way through scenes, like the car journey to have dinner with her parents. It is here that Jess’s fractious interaction with her mother is qualified (the former having endured years of competitive hostility about art) and where Robbie assumes a peacekeeper’s role with ingratiating comments about brisket. Later, the complications of an unplanned pregnancy morph into unexpected parental optimism and a deepening bond between the two. But as with Guess How Much I Love You? currently playing at the Royal Court, not all pregnancies are plain sailing and when complications arise, they can create an insurmountable emotional fissure which requires courage and unfiltered emotional expression between a couple if they are to survive its challenges. In our modern age of constant and instantly accessible communication, it is ironic that a single ill-considered phone message serves to cause the most harm.

Whilst the narrative may conform and play out with a certain predictability, the journey is everything and here, it proves a captivating and utterly wonderful experience. LOST ATOMS plays 2 hours and 20 mins with interval and continues at the Lyric Hammersmith until 28^th February.