An evening of short plays on the theme of God may sound a bit intellectual for a midweek theatre jaunt, but fear not, director Hugh Allison has put together a rather more accessible offering in punnily-named Heir of the Dog.
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| Hugh Allison |
Not only is the title apt for the curated three piece, but it fits in with the venue perfectly. The first play, Call on Me, Allison's own work, is perhaps the one which most loosely fits the night's theme. We meet Kyle (Stephen Cheriton) and Jo (Emilia Petryszyn), two seemingly publicity-hungry celebrities. One is a Christian and the other an atheist, but both have their own agendas.
Kyle is unsure of himself, Jo much more self-assured and hardened. With a title taken from Psalm 50:15:
"and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honour me."
(or arguably 91:15),
"He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him."
you would assume a more direct link to the reference point. But this tale of sex and charity is interesting nonetheless, if just as a neat little character study bolstered by confident performances.
Michael Dickinson's Circles follows next, an extract from his full length play The Rich Young Man. The scene is a brief interaction between Jesus (Denholm Spurr) and Mary Magdelene (Louisa Tee) and perhaps the most openly critical of God. It sees Jesus, allegedly above sin, portrayed as prideful and while the excerpt was interesting and thought-provoking, would undoubtedly work better within the larger context of his play.
Finally, Wonder, a play penned by Chris Sivewright, is the longest piece. Cheriton, Tee and Petryszyn play three friends who run into another acquaintance of theirs, Tom (Spurr) sitting alone in a park, lost with his own thoughts. The three try their best to cheer up the recent widower, through philosophising and wordplay, debating whether God is real and if so, whether he is kind or evil.
Spurr delivers a stronger performance here, his words tinged with bitterness and frustration, clearly missing his departed wife. And the remaining trio also up their game here, bringing a believable camaraderie to the characters and bouncing off each other well. Petryszyn, as Claudia, switches from the English accent she uses in Call on Me to Polish, with both sounding authentic and demonstrating a gift for voice work.
At one point, Wonder does make use of a bit of an old trope, in referencing the audience, but having seen this employed in many other Fringe and even West End productions, it's perhaps unfair to single out Sivewright for criticism.
The stage is spare throughout the entire evening, dressed with only three folding chairs. Initially it is a hotel room, then a biblical setting and finally a park. Allison's direction is particularly clever in the final piece, where the four characters all 'lie down' by resting on the back wall, with Tee taking off her scarf to make a pillow to cushion her head from the uncomfortable 'ground'.
It's the little touches like this that show consideration to the space available.
And with MC Richard Ward's beautifully velvety voice, good projection and thoroughly unflappable manner, he was an excellent choice of compere.
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| Richard Ward |
Quite often the problem with short plays is that the audience doesn't get to spend enough time with the characters to really forge a connection or relate to them. This is perhaps most evident in Circles. With the entire evening at less than an hour long, we perhaps don't see as much of the characters as we would like on the whole, but Heir of the Dog is an intriguing flavour of what Almost Random Theatre can pull off.
With such a short run and a donation from every ticket sale going to charity, there are some good reasons to head over to Brixton.
Source of the review Views from the Gods
ONE MORE NIGHT TO SEE HEIR OF THE DOG!!!
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