Random

'Random' is a one part a television play, one part a monologue: you could almost consider it a prose poem illustrated with images. In fact, it's a clever adaptation of a stage play, whose writer has clearly thought intelligently about how best to bring it to the screen. The (British West Indian) language is finely written, being simultaneously distinctive, real, and harmonic. But the story is bleak and lacking any sense of comfort or redemption, and the narrative voices not especially sympathetic. There's a fine reading from Nadine Marshall, who voices almost all the script (regardless of which character is speaking); but it's not exactly fun to watch.

I really didn't know what to expect from Random. I'd seen the TV trailer and it looked interesting but didn't tell me much. I started watching and came dangerously close to turning off. The narrative seemed too fractured, too...random. But I stuck with it and I was so happy I did. It was an excellent piece of television.

What makes this so interesting (and ironically off putting in the first 10 minutes) is that the main four main characters of a West Indian family are portrayed not only by actors but by one actress (a remarkable performance by Nadine Marshall) appearing not only within scenes but also in a performance space, often with the actress superimposed as different characters on screen at once.

It is immediately obvious that Random started out as a one woman stage play with the story being told in a series of internal and external monologues. The creative decisions writer and director Debbie Tucker Green makes to adapt her work to the screen work extremely well.

Nadine Marshall reprises her role(s) from the original stage play and she moves effortlessly from an overbearing mother to a grumpy father, a bossy sister and a cocky son. The mundane nature of life is captured brilliantly with comic observations (which reminded me of the plays of Martin McDonagh) until a random act of violence straight from the newspaper headlines changes everything and brings on a tragic tone.

Well worth watching for an unusual, artistic, poetic and intriguing experimental TV drama.