Solstice @ Assembly Roxy

Solstice is an interesting play that unnerves you from the very beginning – or at least makes clear the direction it is going in with its staging, visible as you enter the space – and yet still manages to take an unexpected turn as things go on. Set, as you may have guessed, on 21 June up in the Highlands where it doesn't get dark at night, a man and a woman who once upon a time were together reunite over a dead body. Will they be able to get on with their lives, or will the solstice, or something else, scupper their new life plans?

It is well played by the two performers who both manage to get the balance between scared, excited, angry, and almost any other emotion you might experience drinking tea beside a body. Imagine after all atoning for the sins of a failed relationship 14 years after the fact, while constantly distracted by the fear of arrest. It's not quite right. It's not quite natural, and the summer solstice is the perfect night for not quite natural.

There are moments in the script and in the performance that do not quite fit, or do not seem necessary, but when the plot suddenly shifts direction close to the end most of these moments are explained away. However the change is so sudden that it jars against other moments and doesn't quite feel as if it had the chance to fully develop as an idea, meaning the audience can not get fully behind it or sympathise correctly with the characters. It is a strong play with a strong script and cast, but it just needs that little bit more development to bring it into what it should be.