HOW TO TELL THE MONSTERS FROM THE MISFITS till 17 May
Birmingham Rep
HOW TO TELL THE MONSTERS FROM THE MISFITS: Paul Lucas
Birmingham Rep: The Door
Runs: 2h 20m, one interval, till 17 May
Review: Rod Dungate, 30 April
Intriguing, odd, dark, funny, inventive
Paul Lucas shares with us his unique world view in this off-beat detective story. In Lucas’s world things are nearly normal; they’re also nearly abnormal. Which is to say they are totally normal, too, as well as being far from normal.
We are thrust into a world in which dentists are being murdered, or in one case, nearly murdered. An eager-beaver detective busily tries to solve the crime with his boss, the laid back and squeamish Detective Edwards – his ploy in interrogation is to ask the suspect if they have any recipes for cherry cheesecake. To help them solve these dastardly crimes they call in psychological profiler Malcolm. Tulips feature in the plot, as does, of course, cheesecake, so does mediaeval music making and emu shit.
Should any of this seem out of place I assure you Lucas’s world is marked out by its logic, the rigid application of which solves the crime. Logic winds the plot up to further and further complications and then unravels it. While the sheer dottiness of the characters adds a level of dark fun.
Lucas’s writing is funny, bizarre and disturbing. But I wonder on the showing of this play if his deeply ironic view of the world reveals anything to us. Here are a group of characters as lost as their suspects and victims. All, dead or alive, are (or have been) seeking happiness and release from loneliness. Lucas’s dysfunctional happy ending is also ironic, so is there no silver lining to bring relief from the dark clouds?
Angus Barnett is superb as Detective Edwards. His lugubrious looks and large frame lead us on our journey. Barnett manages to open himself up to us so that we actually care about him. Jon Foster is wonderfully energetic as the other policeman, Thornton; he also pulls off a terrific double (don’t look at the cast list till afterwards.) Robert Katz completes the trio as a disturbingly unstable profiler.
Press nights come early in runs and the company were pushing too hard at this early performance. Once they relax a bit more into the performance, once the play’s natural rhythm is found, I fancy more comedy will be revealed in this fascinating oddity.
Detective Edwards: Angus Barnett
Sgt Thornton: Jon Foster
Malcolm: Richard Katz
Company Member: Tomasz Mikulski
Director: Lorne Campbell
Designer: Chloe Lamford
Lighting Designer: Jon Clark
Sound Designer: Clive Meldrum
2008-04-30 10:31:55