Review: Stuart: A Life Backwards, Sheffield Studio

That some of his writing can be heard above the malestrom of this production that is, frankly a bit of a mess, is testament to the quality of his work. There is a lot about this piece of work to make an audience uncomfortable. There is the story of Stuart Shorter himself.
 An appalling story of misery heaped upon a man and the resulting sadness. Abused as a child, his muscular dystrophy was perhaps the least of his problems. Taken into care, his life was a spiral of alcohol-fuelled violence and subsequent homelessness. His story was told, after his death under a train, by his unlikely friend, PhD drop-out Alexander Masters.

It is retold in this production that has far too much chaos thrown at it. The point is to reflect the chaotic nature of Stuart’s sometime volatile mind and always volatile life: this is the reason for John Bausor’s spinning, wheeling design, littered with the detritus of a life around the stage.

Director Mark Rosenblatt throws an awful lot at the production – at one point a bookshelf is represented by an actor on one side of the open carcass of Bausor’s design holding two books, which he moves through the air as Stuart chooses one to read. It is all far too fussy. The life of Stuart really needs very little to make it look more chaotic. A simpler telling of the story would have proved possibly much more effective.

As Stuart, Fraser Ayres is compelling, but his performance is another cause for discomfort. It is impossible to escape the question of how appropriate it is for an able-bodied actor to play someone with a disability. That massive question is the least of this production’s faults.

To Sept 28.