Reverberation

It was the debut of his play The Inheritance at the Young Vic in 2018 that launched Matthew López into the stratosphere. The loose adaptation of EM Forster's novel Howard's End wrestled with the concept of what it means to be a gay man today, several decades on from the AIDS crisis. After its Young Vic debut, it transferred to Broadway and quickly won just about every award going.

Reverberation hit the stage several years earlier, making its debut in Connecticut in 2015. Nine years later, Bristol Old Vic is hosting the European premiere of Reverberation – with the action now transferred to a block of flats in Tottenham, rather than the original New York apartment building.

Reverberation is a story of loneliness in urban environments, and the often unexpected – sometimes digital – connections that come with living in densely populated environs. We meet Jonathan (Michael Ahomka-Lindsay) as he is caught in a rut, unable to face the outside world after a tragic personal loss, instead seeking quick gratification from online hook-ups with men. One such conquest is Wes (Jack Gibson), a dizzyingly enthusiastic young Grindr match with a wide-eyed, refreshing naivety. When the brash, free-spirited American Claire (Eleanor Tomlinson) moves into his former flat upstairs, the two connect and form a strong bond. Among this new-found happiness though, reverberations of his past persist.

Dialogue is at the heart of Reverberation, with the interplay between characters pushing the plot forwards. López's writing is nuanced, with emotional arcs not necessarily always linear. This was generally well executed, particularly from Tomlinson, whose character was so outsized it could easily have felt caricatured. While she was certainly acting to the back of the hall – which, in the awkward shape of the Bristol Old Vic stalls is no easy feat – it was a pleasure watching her act up close. Nothing felt overdone.

While the overarching character development was sensitively achieved, some of the stylistic choices occasionally felt a little ham-fisted, as though the audience couldn't be trusted with reading subtlety or nuance. The pulsating rhythms and wall projections of dark, spiky images of pornography and motion were emotive in showing the torment of memories for Jonathan, the segues between scenes backed by Charli XCX tunes seemed like an unnecessary attempt to show youth culture or ground the action in the present day. The choreographed movement in these moments also felt at odds with the richness on offer in the scenes themselves.

With action constantly set over two floors of an apartment block, there are inevitable challenges in set design – but none were felt here, with minimalist interiors set around a central staircase, used relentlessly as Claire moves between the two flats. There is much for students to explore in this work, particularly dialogue, interpersonal connection and the physicality of divided spaces.