Stellar effort from sole actor on stage

Locke, by Steven Knight Directed by Jett Ranchhod Playing at Bats Theatre until November 4

Solo performances that rely on the audience being totally focused on one character are often exceedingly hard to achieve, yet Locke, playing at Bats Theatre, about the plight of construction worker Ivan Locke, does just that in an original way.

Locke is supposedly a happy married man, with a wife and two devoted soccer-mad boys, who is also a very successful site manager of a construction company about to undertake one of the largest concrete pours ever done in Europe.

Yet seven months earlier, during a night of drunken revelry, he had a one-night stand and the woman in question is now about to give birth, prematurely, to his son.

Abandoned by his own father as a kid, he is determined to not do the same for this child, even though he has very little connection with the baby’s mother. And so, he abandons his worksite and the chance to go home and watch the big match with his boys, to drive to London to be with the woman who is having his child.

The action of the play is Locke driving down the motorway to London, having a series of phone conversations, on a speakerphone, with work colleagues and family, the expectant mother and his dead father justifying his actions. And even though his actions with this woman only occurred once, the ramifications on himself and all those around him are huge.

As his distraught wife says when she finds out, ‘‘the difference between once and never is the whole world’’.

If this all sounds like a film script, then that is exactly what it is, first appearing on the big screen back in 2013.

Yet, unlike many films that are turned into stage plays, this one works surprisingly well.

This is because – as happens in the movie – there is only one character on stage, Locke, sitting for the majority of the time in a very believably constructed car, and everyone he talks to – like in the film – are just voices and are never seen.

The other major contributing factor to how well this production works is the stellar performance from the actor playing Locke – Grant Beban.

It is a big ask to remain almost motionless on stage the whole time, talking and interacting with voices, rather than actual people. Nevertheless, Beban successfully achieves this, and with director Jett Ranchhod has created a very real, believable and engaging character in Locke.

The increasing pressure and stress that Locke is under, including complications with the birth, as he rushes down the motorway are exceptionally wellcontrolled, with increasing outward signs through body language and vocal tones of what Locke is going through.

And a big hand must also be given to the 11 voices on the phone that Locke interacts with, as they come across as just as real as the character on stage and go a long way to assisting the production to work so well and make it one well worth watching.

– Ewen Coleman

Unlike many films that are turned into stage plays, this one works surprisingly well.