Heart Wall review – grief knocks a family karaoke reunion off-key

Bush theatre, London
Secrets are exposed during a pub singalong as Franky returns home to find her parents divided in Kit Withington’s drama

You can hear this play before you enter the auditorium. Inside, a karaoke session is in full force with audience members blasting out Friday night pub bangers on stage. The singing resumes when Kit Withington’s family drama begins, with karaoke as the glue that binds together characters at emotional odds with each other.

Several of them are at odds with themselves too, including Franky (Rowan Robinson), who drops into her parental home in a north-west town in the opening scene. Her life is in London now, with a boyfriend and job that prove she is moving on. This town hasn’t done the same and neither have her parents since a tragedy more than two decades ago. Her father, Dez (Deka Walmsley), is behaving oddly, still seemingly overwhelmed by grief and guilt, while her mother, Linda (Sophie Stanton), is seeking happiness elsewhere.