On Monday evening, Simon Stephens‘ Sea Wall premiered at the Bush Theatre in West London. Consisting of a thirty minute monologue by actor Andrew Scott, the play works perfectly in the theatre’s intimate setting. Scott’s performance was adroitly adapted to the theatre’s location in which a steady stream of traffic stage left and rumbling overground trains stage right inevitably compete with the performer for the audience’s attention.

It is difficult to say much about the contents of the play without giving too much away, but the notion of the sea wall – what I think is more properly referred to as the shelf break, the area where the continental shelf meets the continental rise and the sea rapidly becomes considerably deeper – has a tremendous metaphorical value.  One thinks that life moves along gradually, with relative smooth transitions between phases, but occasionally there are steep, dramatic drops that plunge you into the dark icy depths.

Sea Wall will be at the Bush Theatre until October 17th. Tickets can be bought at the theatre’s website.