Cliffs, written by Kate O’Connor and directed by O’Connor and Hope Rose, is another in UMDS’s long line of MIFTAs. It’s an interesting play, and is surprisingly difficult to talk about because its appeal is so tricky to summarise and distil into a single point. It isn’t quite a pure drama, or a tragedy, or comedy, and so is left purely to focus on its characters and themes.
The play concerns the death of George (Fraser Crook), a young boy from Dover, in 1964, and the legacy he leaves behind for his family. We start out with his sister Annie (Stella Stevens) and, later, her mother Rose (Josselin Ball) laying flowers on top of the cliff he fell from a few months prior, before the play’s narrative shifts to Annie’s daughter Emma (Ball) thirty years later, as we witness the beginning of her relationship with her childhood friend Micheal (Alfie Pullum). Another thirty years pass and we are shown Emma and Micheal with their children Georgia and Joe (Stevens and Crook) as they scatter Annie’s ashes off the cliffs following her death.
As that synopsis might suggest, most of the cast is called on to play multiple roles. Pullum is one exception, perfectly playing the snarky, slightly pretentious, but loveable cynic Micheal. His performance doesn’t really change much across the thirty years between his two scenes, but it feels appropriate to his character.
Crook, while certainly good in the parts he is given, spends most of the play as the primarily non-speaking spirit of George, while his other character, Joe, is written very similarly to George, which prevents him from showing more range. Nevertheless, he still fully inhabits the mind, body and mannerisms of a child half his age, which is no easy task, and his occasional intrusions into scenes set after his death are always welcome.
The two female actors take centre stage for most of the show, as each is allowed to play both mother and daughter at various points. In 1964, Ball is the mother and Stevens the daughter, before this is reversed in 1994 and again in 2024. It’s a clever use of multi-roling that allows us to see how the actions and personalities of the various family members change and reverberate throughout time.
Ball’s turn as a middle-aged Emma in the final scene evokes her portrayal of Rose in the beginning, and the same goes for Stevens’ excitable takes on the Annie of 1964 and the Georgia of sixty years later. Both actors clearly relish the chance to show their skill with different kinds of character, and both give excellent, grounded performances that imbue each mother-daughter connection with the strength of a real familial bond.
Nostalgia and a yearning for the past are key thematic elements to the show, brought to the forefront not only by the time-jumping and the resultant change in costumes, but also the fact that most of its hour-plus runtime consists entirely of reminiscing about deceased characters.
It’s no surprise, then, that Anna Bauss’ masterful design work is deliberately crafted to evoke wistful memories of times gone by. The back wall of the stage is dominated by a gorgeous painting of the eponymous cliffs (complete with a nighttime variant) and each are instrumental in crafting the play’s setting and atmosphere, while the warm orange lighting brings to mind the sepia tone of an aged family photograph. The raised section of the stage is scattered with children’s toys, presumably George’s, painted grey and covered in moss, as though they have become part of the cliffs themselves – just as George’s own spirit has entrenched itself in his family for generations to come.
I saw Cliffs on its final night, and by that point it had apparently built up something of a reputation for itself as a tear-jerker – a fellow audience member told me that he would try his best not to cry. I would be lying if I said the show quite met these lofty expectations (and I was later informed that not crying was quite a lot easier than my friend had expected), but Cliffs certainly goes for the emotional jugular in a few instances and is usually able to deliver some satisfyingly heartfelt character drama.
The play is at its most effective when restrained and quiet, peaking at the very end with the aged Emma’s impassioned and heartfelt speech to her late mother, which ties off both characters’ plot threads perfectly and is a lovely conclusion to the show’s themes of family and motherhood. Micheal’s confession of love to Emma and the ensuing sequence of reciprocation-argument-kiss is probably the most realistic that the play ever feels, and I appreciated it.
Less successful are the early scenes of Annie remembering her and George’s time together when he was still alive, which come off somewhat saccharine and overblown. In particular, the extended sequences where the two of them physically re-enact moments from their lives – like a dance routine the characters apparently performed at a school talent show – are clunky, rarely funny, and severely slow the pace of the first scene with how long they are.
It has its flaws, yes, but taken together Cliffs is a play that will be well worth your time if it’s ever put on again. Boasting stellar performances, developed and interesting characters, and sumptuously beautiful design, I for one hope that, just like George, Cliffs influences generations of MIFTAs yet to come.
