Waterloo East Theatre, London
****
Waterloo East Theatre both suffers and benefits from its location. It is mere seconds away from London’s main point of travel, but consequently must deal with the recurring rattles of trains over its head. The task of any show appearing there becomes to be engaging enough to make those interruptions insignificant, and the team behind Tranquility, Serenity, Calm can proudly say this has been achieved.
Welcome to the new world of absurdist farce, where a lack of
established time, merging contexts and a sense of existential disorientation
are combined with two men being extremely silly: cue the giggles. Civil servant
Francis meets anarchist Peter Joe, Beta blockers meet bombs and political
theatre for once takes a merry turn.
We stand in a time mesh of the ‘something must be done, but
let’s go to the pub first’ anarchism of the 70s, the landslide victory of Blair
surfing on 90s New Labour and the big society of the noughties, where Cameron
sits on the top tier drinking the sweat of the working man from a champagne
glass. Somewhere in the middle, Withnail and I must abandon dreams of their
socialist utopia.
The script (Helen Banner) has clearly been well-developed
and edited over time. Although the beginning is a slow warm-up, the pace never
drops throughout the fifty minutes. When considering the fact that there are
only two performers and few changes of scene, this feat becomes ever more
impressive. Jimi Davson and William Uden are fearless actors and expertly
balanced. They deserve credit simply for having no inhibitions and delivering
with admirable conviction.
The humour is cleverly structured to set up the play for
disaster. As Francis embarks on the political pitch of his career, the side-effects
of his drugs brought to light earlier in the play return to the mind, followed
by oddly satisfying dread. Other highlights include Peter Joe attempting to
hide a bomb in Francis’s office to the soundtrack of the man himself belting out
Jerusalem. Once again, credit for conviction is due.
The characters are thankfully not complete caricatures and
do retain some subtlety. ‘I’m useless at
sorting other people out’, says the civil servant for the commission for civil
contentment. Hohoho. Some of the politics itself feels left out, but what is
clear is that the two characters are different yet the same. Both engage in
partially blind political faith, but not entirely without sense. Together they
create a cracking, ridiculous romp through attempts at progressive statecraft. If
you are heading to Edinburgh in the next few weeks, spare an evening for Otio
Productions. It will be an hour well spent.
1 comment:
A nice review. I'll keep a look out for them!
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