The Sea, the Sea

Sea-storms seem to be buffeting London theatre at the moment, and I’m not just talking about Trevor Nunn’s sugar-saturated Tempest. Down at the Southwark Playhouse, Edinburgh Fringe hit Bound blows into London after a worldwide tour, while at St Giles Cripplegate, in the Barbican complex, you’ll find a darker, sacral The Tempest just back from its premiere in a West Bank refugee camp.

The winner of multiple awards at Edinburgh 2010, including a Fringe First and National Student Drama Awards, Bound reaches into the heart of what men will do in times of economic desperation. It’s also a peek into the life of a traditional fishing community, a frequently overlooked bulwark of our island history.

But while we learn plenty about the salty streets of Brixham, Devon, we never see them or the fishing-widows who populate them: instead, the action takes place in the claustrophobic atmosphere of an oily, creaking fishing trawler as six men are forced into ever more dangerous courses in a desperate attempt to find a catch.