Review: Dream Pill

“You will like working here…”

Part of Charged 1, Rebecca Prichard’s Dream Pill tells the harrowing story of two young Nigerian girls, 9 and 10, who have been somehow locked into the sex-slave industry and kept prisoner both physically and mentally, playing on their spiritual beliefs which have been manipulated against them. It uses the setting of the downstairs restaurant well as the play is set in a cellar beneath some less than salubrious establishment and the faint hubbub of the Soho Theatre bar thus serves an effective purpose.

Danielle Vitalis as the bolshier, more gregarious Bola drives much of the narrative, her plain speaking presenting harsh truths to us with a, but Samantha Pearl as the more timid Tunde gives one of the most affecting performances of the whole six plays, Clearly damaged by her experiences, yet still hungry for affection and approval, she broke my heart with her wide eyes and hushed speech. Director Tessa Walker has them walking throughout the audience, addressing the audience directly and in such an uncompromising manner that one ends up not begrudging the temporary if unconscionable ‘relief’ provided by the dream pills they receive in return for services rendered.

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