Theatre Review: Mosquitoes, Dukes Theatre, Lancaster

Here a dizzyingly brilliant narrative revolves around a scientist whose work on the Large Hadron Collider, and its hunt for the missing ‘God particle’, spins into her personal life. She has already lost her partner; risks losing her teenage son; has a sister coping uneasily with her own loss; and a mother losing her faculties.

If you think that’s enough losers for one evening, then add in anti-vaxxing conspiracies, euthanasia, faith, over-population, even personal hygiene!

There’s also a mini masterclass on the incipient perils of sexting, probably an instructive one given the average age of contemporary theatre audiences.

The 2017 premiere at the National Theatre starred Olivias Colman and Williams as the warring sisters, which gives some idea of the play’s calibre.

This production, from St Albans-based OVO theatre company, is given a kinetic energy by director Adam Nichols, movement directors Stephanie Allison and Amy Connery and Simon Nicholas’s overhead projections.

The physical and emotional brunt of nearly three hours of intense drama is borne by a highly-competent ensemble of Emma Wright, Faith Turner, Will Pattle, Annette Holland, Lyle Fulton, Eloise Westwood, Jane Withers and Andy Margerison – the latter as the particle part of Boson!

And how many plays can offer an ending that can be both grimly pessimistic, and optimistic?

David Upton