Neddy Goes To Glasto **

In Neddy Goes To Glasto, Sinead (Neddy to her friends) returns to Glastonbury after a ‘hiatus’ of 30 years. Yet beneath the festival setting, this is fundamentally a story about grief and the struggle to process loss.

Neddy’s sister has died tragically young. More than a sibling, she was Neddy’s closest friend, bound to her through a shared childhood trauma. Her death has left a wound so raw that Neddy has scarcely begun to confront it, let alone heal from it.

But off to Glastonbury she goes, with, somewhat improbably, “Payday” Paula. Some of the comedic element of this production emanates from the unlikely friendship between the two protagonists (both played by Jo Dakin) – Paula is extemporaneous and well-versed in life on the margins of society, while Neddy is more guarded and restrained.

Once at the festival, fractures become more pronounced, including descent into physical conflict, when Neddy realises that Paula has brought her sister’s ashes to scatter.

Neddy decides to immerse herself in the Glastonbury experience. She takes what she believes to be drugs and forms a connection with a stranger, hinting at an undercurrent of emotional transference in her behaviour.

There is a decent production waiting to break out, but this needs revision to fully realise its potential.

The childhood trauma lies in the sisters’ parents simply taking off – but this touchstone moment in the narrative is merely referred to, almost as an aside, rather than what should have been the beginning of the throughline of their close relationship, fuelling the deep-rooted grief.

It’s unclear what Paula and Neddy’s relationship is and even why they are friends at all. It’s even more baffling that Paula should be entrusted to disperse the ashes rather than her sister. Which brings us to the essence of Paula, which slips far too easily into caricature, her mannerisms exaggerated and quite jarring.

The direction needs to be refined – it is so clearly in Dakin’s repertoire to find moments of stillness, but this happened too infrequently.

All of this is a shame, as the creative team clearly possess considerable talent.