SALT by Contemporary Ritual Theatre – Riverside Studios Review

Review by Clara
Tickets were gifted in return for an honest review


It is pleasingly fitting that Contemporary Ritual Theatre has brought their play SALT to Riverside Studios in London, on the bank of the River Thames, a tidal river which flows into the North Sea. Contemporary Ritual Theatre is touring from their base of Great Yarmouth, a
seaside town traversed by the River Yare, also a tidal river which flows into the North Sea.

I’m a big proponent of using the specific to illuminate the general – for me, writer-director Beau Hopkins’ SALT achieves that. The setting, language, and lens are distinctly place-specific to Norfolk and East Anglia. This production benefits from some of Riverside Studios’ technical capabilities, but it could work equally well in non-traditional spaces. This agility seems in-built – SALT has been performed in circus tents and village halls. In fact, witnessing this production in the belly of a wooden boat or in a fishermen’s church might be particularly atmospheric and special.

With the dimming of the house lights, a hush falls over the black box studio. The audience is arranged in concentric circles around a central space, harking back to gatherings around a communal hearth. Some seats are grouped in threes, mirroring the number of performers. A heavy hemp rope lies coiled in the centre. The performers enter the space, their steps and breathing precise and rhythmic. Their voices rise in song. They pick up the rope. The lights illuminate the dust rising off the rope. Thus begins this ritual of theatre, this theatre of ritual, this ritual theatre.

It is a fascinating piece of theatre to think about. My initial reaction was of disorientation, as the play seems to encapsulate 17th-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes’ description of the “natural condition of mankind” in his 1651 book Leviathan:

“In such condition there is [...] worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”.

For reasons that gradually become apparent, Man Billy (Mylo McDonald) and his mother Widow Pruttock (Emily Outred) have been relegated to the edges of their fishing village on the East Norfolk coast. Theirs is a hard life, isolated and at the mercy of forces greater than
them.

When characters in SALT exchange gossip, they say, “Tell me of the catch.” They trade news about the fates of various vessels. Fishing and seafaring are the lens through which they understand and process life. Rituals and beliefs are how they derive what little safety they can get, and how they make sense of a world that seems unpredictable and wildly beyond their control.Widow Pruttock warns Man Billy that “a drop of salt sea here shall pull the tide upon our heads” and “the filth of the floor be the gangway to hell”. It is 1770, and they have one foot in folk beliefs and one foot in Christian morality. Widow Pruttock is God-fearing, and the way she keeps Man Billy safe and under her control is through the mechanism of fear. Her control over Man Billy begins fraying when Sheldis (Bess Roche) enters their orbit.

SALT is at once ancient and fresh. In this ritual-play, old ways are remade anew. The characters’ language is at once crude and poetic. Woven into the play are sea shanties and folk songs – which can have characteristics of rituals. Songs may be used to unite, may have a meditative quality, and may be used to boost morale and synchronise movements when used as work songs. In some senses, storytelling and theatre can be considered rituals. We may see almost nothing of ourselves in Man Billy, Widow Pruttock, and Sheldis, but rituals are not such a distant concept as we may initially think.

Sheldis claims that the three tarot cards she draws for Man Billy foretell his future. In my view, the presence of tarot makes a point within the play and a meta-point about the play: 

The meanings that we have are the meanings that we make. Like tarot is able to surface truths, the play surfaces truths – not necessarily via rational means, but truths that are pulled, gasping, from some more primal part of us.

For Man Billy, Widow Pruttock, and Sheldis, life is “nasty, brutish, and short”, with brief flashes of joy and wonder. But leaning into personal desires without moderation seems to invite danger and ruin. Sheldis is an ungoverned force of nature. With her disruptive intervention, Man Billy and Widow Pruttock swing from one extreme to the other, like the boom of a sailing vessel swinging across the deck in strong winds.

This interpretation seems to chime with German filmmaker Werner Herzog’s quote that the stability of our modern world may largely be an illusion: “I am fascinated by the idea that our civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness”.

With the primal and the folkloric taking centre stage, and creating some beautifully filmic moments, SALT is in resonance with the films of writer-director Robert Eggers. The play feels diametrically opposite to BBC Radio 4’s Shipping Forecast, which by contrast is safe, ordered, and calming.

To paraphrase Walt Whitman’s poetry, SALT – like its characters – contains multitudes. SALT is far from civilised and neat. Rather than a palatable little pill, encapsulated for modern convenience, the play is an intense, bitter herbal concoction. It is primal – it is breath, it is rhythm, it is life. It is a ritual, and perhaps the sacrifice it demands is the audience’s comfort. But if one surrenders to its tempest-like power, on the shore waits a greater prize – insight.

 
⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘SALT’ by Contemporary Ritual Theatre runs at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London until Sunday, 15 March 2026. Tickets are available from:

https://riversidestudios.co.uk/whats-on/mW-salt/

More information about Contemporary Ritual Theatre can be found at:
https://contemporaryritualtheatre.org