Islington Gazette
Philip Carroll

23 October 2003

Another success from this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Camarilla is a hard hitting political drama written by Van Badham with some pretty good performances all round.

A bomb explodes in a London street, the terrorists are unknown and so are the motives.

A mother and daughter are caught in the blast. The mother, Professor Maggy Tanner (Lois Norman), is injured. Her daughter Rebekah (Caroline O'Kerr) has been slightly injured. As the pair recover from the event, Maggie watches her family being torn apart by different views and beliefs.

Her husband John (David Farrington) is now a Labour historian and ex-trade unionist from the north of England. Rebekah, Maggy's daughter from her first marriage, is a university graduate working for a PR company who has a dark secret and is very ambitious.

Maggy's stepson David (David Abeles) turns up from America and not being able to get along with each other, things come to a head. David blames the Professor for the break-up of his mother and father and the family explodes into accusations and secrets.

Overall a gripping play, both full of surprises and very well acted.