Booby's Bay, Finborough Theatre review: Key central issues are drowned by scandals galore

A platform to really get to grips with one of Cornwall's most important issues - the housing crisis caused by empty second homes - loses it way

On and off lovers, Jeanie (Florence Roberts) and Huck (Oliver Bennett) with the painted snakes Jeanie will sell to tourists (Blerim Racaj)

Highlighting one of Cornwall’s biggest problems, the mostly empty second homes of the affluent causing housing shortages and increased prices for locals, is Henry Darke’s first full length play.

It’s a tale of sorrow – the protagonist, youthful and slightly delusional, Huck (Oliver Bennet) was once a fisherman, but has been grief-stricken since his older brother never returned from fishing one day, after Huck was too hungover to accompany him. He says he’ll return to it, one day, and instead does nothing but collect driftwood and squat in a holiday home his mother (Esther Coles) cleans. He buries his head in the sand, and turns to the bottle and chanting mantras instead of facing reality when it comes to the social basics of earning money and where to live.

Instead he sees himself as brave enough to stand up for what he believes in, where others aren’t. He’s well aware he’s swimming the wrong way up the river and feels he’s the only one fighting the real fight. Even his own mother can’t see his vision. She cleans the holiday homes and, when they’re empty, rents them out on the side at overpriced rates.

It’s set in the play’s namesake town: a place Huck feels flows within his blood. He urges others to care about the environment and keep it “the way it was” – empty and beautiful. His on-off love interest Jeanie (Florence Roberts) says she’s coming round “to their thinking”, and prefers the tourists as she can sell them her souvenir tat.

Huck’s dead brother (Joseph Chance) comes back to haunt him after a boozy night out (Blerim Racaj)

To take his stance, Huck barricades himself in an empty holiday home, and invites a local reporter to share his revolutionary actions. The reporter, Ivan (Jospeh Chance) has just moved down from London – an outsider. He highlights that outsiders don’t understand the plight of the locals: his story on Huck portrays him as a drunk, unemployed squatter, instead of grappling with the real subject of unaffordable house prices and long-term empty homes.

The play begins clearly with the housing crisis at its core, but it soon becomes diluted with multiple other threads unravelling at the same time; Huck fathering Jeanie’s baby, who pretends it’s the bolshie surfer-cum-local gossiper’s Daz (Bradley Taylor); Ivan’s fight to stay sober; Daz doping in an attempt to finally win the local surf competition; and Huck’s guilt-ridden self that continually haunts him. There’s so much that the central theme loses it way and leaves many of the sub-plots unfinished.

Staged in the Finborough theatre, which is celebrating its 150th year, the coastal themed stage is minimal, but brought to life with sea-sprayed painted panels driftwood and the cast singing shanty songs. But nothing is as off-putting, in such a tiny theatre, as Huck actually cooking the mackerel he’s caught and proceeds to eat.

Despite losing its way this is an enjoyable production, in which the central issue is key, but is unfortunately drowned out by scandals galore.

‘Booby’s Bay’ is at the Finsborough Theatre until 24 February