Went to see The Chosen Ones at Colchester Mercury last week not really knowing what to expect. Didn’t know the play and with a cast list of four, ex Corrie, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks actors to the fore, expectations were perhaps unrealistically low….
So, very pleasing to report that the Dean party thoroughly enjoyed it. (I’m sure the playwright and actors will be suitable reassured by this). The title The Chosen Ones gives you a clue – a drama about retribution, about an avenging Nemesis. In this case the avenger is a young man called Callum, who turns up in the garden of a man and two children and wrecks their comfortable world with the pent-up furies of the past and shatters their futures in the space of around one and a half hours of largely excellent dialogue and acting.
For this to work the character of Callum was central and had to work. Ben Freeman dominates in the role, the hitherto unacknowledged son of businessman Greg who, along with Greg’s two legitimate children Ben and Anna has to face up to the choices he has made in the past as well as those which will determine the future, or lack of it.
Good ensemble acting, with Freeman particularly fine, this was a very enjoyable production. I therefore now place on the record my intention never again to be sniffy about ex soap stars hitting the boards. I’ve seen much worse from supposedly experienced and well loved theatre stalwarts. What a shame the Mercury was far less than half full, by far the worst attendance we’ve seen since we’ve started going there on a regular basis. Hopefully, the other nights were better attended and the production got the crowds it definitely deserved.