In Coral Wylie’s nature-driven debut, absence and presence blur and spike. Pip - also played by Wylie – is a non-binary 19-year-old trying to make sense of themselves and their world. To do this, they keep a diary; filling it up with heavy feelings. ‘I don’t know myself. I don’t know how to fix it,’ they write.
Pip’s parents, however, prefer to keep their worries and traumas as ungerminated seeds. Twenty years ago, Pip’s father, Craig (Wil Johnson) lost his best friend Duncan (a cracking Omari Douglas) to AIDS. But instead of speaking about their memories, Craig has tried his best to bury Duncan’s existence, deep. Near the beginning of Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew, Pip discovers one of Duncan’s old jackets with an old diary stuffed inside the pocket. Almost immediately they feel an affinity with their parents’ old friend.
The past starts to overflow like running water. Through his writing, Duncan’s personality is released in multitudes; and in these flashes Wylie’s play shimmers into something brilliant. Douglas makes Duncan an almost otherworldly vision; his diary entries pulse with humour and fire, as well as his niggling fears. Duncan’s life feels stolen; the loss of him is cruel and has left a gaping hole.
Without Duncan, colour has been sucked out of Craig and his wife Lorin’s days. Max John’s set makes their once dazzling home bland and white; their walls and furniture have no decoration. In scenes from their past though, the couple are powered by their own youth. Together, they dance and shout with Duncan. They seem energised by the world in front of them.
And at the centre of it all is the act of gardening. Duncan passed on his love of plants to Craig - whose allotment is still his prized possession. Wylie makes gardening a radical act; we hear of plants histories and journeys, their growth marks the turning time. The end scene, which shows green sprouting from the plain surfaces, is a beautiful, touching sight.
Occasionally, the characters become mouthpieces for polemic and the script could do with some serious cutting and pruning. Nevertheless this is play that shows the wonder of friendship wholeheartedly and my eyes are filled with tears by its close. Wylie is clearly a talent and this is a debut that sets fertile ground for growth.
