Song From Far Away, Young Vic ***

It is pointless for the Young Vic to be transformed into a pros space. For such an immersive and vibrant theatre, you feel slightly disconnected with a traditional staging. Despite this, no Ivo Van Hove production can be dull and here, where a man is naked for 40 minutes of this monologue is guaranteed to engage most audience members for 1 hour 20 minutes. One of the things SImon Stephen's monologue is advertised as being about 'unsettling sex'. What needs to be established is that, just because a playwright describes a man's homosexuality, it doesn't mean that it is an analysis or dissection of sexuality. Sex is very secondary here, with this piece being mainly about the family relationship, with the nudity being a metaphor of this man being stripped of the protective clothing and left exposed to the wounds of his previous life. Jan Versweyveld's design is a bare and lifeless room that represents the loss of feeling Willem has experienced towards his family, including his dead brother. It is a complex and layered production which occasionally can become slow however, a convincing performance from the well toned Eelco Smith as the vulnerable Willem is raw and engaging, with a final scene that is rather emotional. The use of music from Mark Eitzel is interesting even if the actual theme isn't of a high enough quality to be a convincing theme to be catchy. Whilst this is no 'A View from the Bridge' it is still a poignant and quality production from the pair from Toneelgroep to show British creative teams how to do it.