Stoopud Fucken Animals

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly why Joel Horwood's new play about family secrets - billed as a 'Suffolk Western' - doesn't quite hit the mark.

In twin brothers Charlie and Dim, crumpled mother Karen and pathetic cattle farmer/pub singer Lefty, the playwright behind the acclaimed Mikey the Pikey (who also co-wrote last year's Food) has created a set of characters with huge potential.

Born several significant minutes before his not-too-bright sibling, Charlie is all too aware of the murky reputation his family has around town. In fact, so keen is he to distance himself from the Redhead clan that he decides to changes his name. To Charles Bronson.

Jacking in his job as a bull semen salesman, he heads to London in search of answers to questions about his identity that have, for pretty good reason, remained secret for 22 years. It's here that Horwood falters with a scene we've seen far too many times before, and which is out of keeping with the play's quirky, darkly comic tone.

Ninety minutes is insufficient for a piece this ambitious, but it also feels like the young writer has set himself too great a challenge by taking a deadly serious story of abuse and revenge and populating it with characters whom the audience gets to know only superficially, and who speak in comedy accents.

Kate Budgen's production for Loose Collective makes excellent use of the Drill Hall space, and Becky Hurst's flexible set deals cleverly with the play's large number of short scenes. Of the performers, Joseph Arkley as Dim and Robert Goodale as Lefty stand out, largely because the scenes between their characters allow for some insight into the bleak states of their lives.