Tim Foley
Pentabus and ThickSkin
Lowry Salford
March 20-21, 2025; 1 hr 25 mins
Driftwood is a multi-layered, multi-faceted piece from Bruntwood prize-winning author Tim Foley – all the more impressive that it achieves so much with such minimal resources.
It tells a story that gradually unfolds over the course of little more than an hour: at the outset, adult brothers Mark and Tiny are on the beach of Seaton Carew, near the mouth of the Tees, wondering what to do as their dad lies dying in hospital. In age there’s seven years between them.
Mark is the older one, who made it by getting away from Teesside – he’s now an event organiser – while Tiny is stuck in his birth town with his dad. What do we know about dad? Not a lot, except that as children he told them tales of a mysterious, zombie-like figure who comes from the sea - The Mariner – to take the dying… and there’s a wreck, HMS Stag, that emerges from the waves at low tide.
The play is full of local detail and allusion but easy to understand: Foley’s writing is brilliantly economical, referencing recent events we all know, and yet evocative. The estuary could be polluted from past industrial waste – crabs are dying on the beach as the river is dredged.
Foley’s Electric Rosary made a powerful impact when produced at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester in 2022. This is his follow-up play, co-produced by Wigan-based ThickSkin Theatre and Pentabus, which played a variety of small venues (and Blackpool Grand Theatre) in 2023. That was filmed for streaming at the time, and I suspect anyone who saw the video has wanted to witness this version, now ending a tour in Salford after visits to Liverpool, Sheffield, Stockton-on-Tees, Lancaster, Leeds and other places. It remains the same two-hander, with powerful portrayals by James Westphal (Mark) and Jerome Yates (Tiny), on a simple set with film backdrop (original design by Lulu Tam, video and captions by Sarah Readman, lighting by Charly Dunford and sound by Lee Affen).
There was an aspect of Electric Rosary that is present here: a way of hinting at scary things going on in the background to a vivid personal story. The brothers’ relationship is what it’s about, as we discover that Mark couldn’t bring himself to say goodbye in person to the father he felt he had escaped, but can immerse himself in giving dad a proper send-off; while Tiny was there at the end but misses the funeral. It’s all happening on that beach where, years before, an event that still haunts each of them took place.
Westphal and Yates have honed their skills on this play and are equally impressive, subtle and unthrottled in their work. Neil Bettles (of ThickSkin) and Elle While (of Pentabus) have made something in Driftwood that’s both mysterious and magical.
More info and tickets here
