THEATRE REVIEW: Broken Biscuits ★★★★

Broken Biscuits
Birmingham REP Theatre
Tuesday 29th November 2016

Broken Biscuits is a story that centres around three GCSE graduates; Megan, Holly, and Ben, who decide to meet up every Friday in Megan's back garden shed over the summer because they all share one thing in common, and that is being a misfit, someone who goes through school not having the smoothest of rides, weather that being picked on by weight, shyness, or sexuality, all three connected to these characters. When Megan decides they should start a band and sign them up to ‘The Battle of The Bands’ at their upcoming college, we as the audience follow their journey over the 8 weeks as we watch them develop their abilities through the use of live song, with Megan on Drums, Ben on Guitar, and Holly on Flute and electronics with the help from her laptop.

I absolutely loved this production due to the energy and enthusiasm that was oozing from the performances on stage. I loved how the characters where so relatable and really made myself reminisce about the time I was their age and going through that transitional summer. Faye Christall was amazing as Megan and really owned the character with so much conviction that I felt her performance to feel complete fresh and original, which can be equally said in regards to Grace Hogg-Robinson and Andrew Reed as Holly and Ben, which is a brilliant skill to have even after 6 weeks on tour currently, with the tour ending here in Birmingham!

The chemistry on stage from the trio was electric and this could only be heightened thanks to the fantastic script from Tom Wells, who had really captured these characters in this summer time-frame to make this characters perfectly rounded with such sustainable backgrounds, as seen through the use of weekly songs where we delve deeper into the characters lives, especially within Holly's life where we learn about Dean through a brilliant song about him buying a 79p snickers!

The set being a shed was incredibly realistic is well and I really liked how the production didn't shy away from restricting itself from having the actors backs to the audience, as it really felt that we were in the shed with them, which I really felt was a nice touch to have in this fantastic production! The highlight of this story though has to be showing how these characters are not perfect and clearly not incredibly close friends by showing cracks in their friendship; as we are following their weekly band rehearsals we see how their lives outside if the shed affect their relationships with each other, showing severe splinters beginning to emerge after the first few weeks, but what the script does perfectly is giving the production an ending that brings all three characters back together in a warm hearting moment of friendship.

Overall, Broken Biscuits was a fantastic relatable piece of theatre with likeable characters brought to life by three brilliantly casted and well acted actors in this uplifting tale filled with heartwarming songs.