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If the Cap Fits and Sporadicity

by Dean Stalham

Hen and Chickens Theatre

21 October – 8 November, 2008

I

zens

A review by Marion Drew for EXTRA! EXTRA!

This is a double-bill of two plays written by the ex-con playwright, Dean Stalham who now works for the Koestler Trust, bringing prisoners and art into contact, with unusual and interesting results.
The first play, although very short at 20 minutes, was for me the more powerful of the two. It is intriguing from beginning to end, the clever word play never allowing one to keep one’s feet, nor to be able to pin it down. The dialogue, full of innuendo, sexual and otherwise, constantly disorientates like shifting quicksand. Director Johnnie Harris in this, his debut, skillfully brings out the play’s challenge to the audience, to think beyond the superficial layer of the common bar scene, and forces one into a deeper reflection, leaving one with a lingering unease. This tightly controlled three-hander was played with powerful intensity, not easily dismissed or forgotten.

By contrast in the second play, although Stalham unflinchingly and gutsily portrays some of the more unsavoury aspects of life on streets not far up the road from this cosy, trendy theatre, there is little work for the audience to do. Drugs, domestic violence, abuse, neglect are all there on the plate, what you see is what you get. But somehow one has seen it all before. There is little to really engage and provoke the audience into a new insight or a reconsideration of things we hear about all too often. The play has energy and pace, and there are some snappy, sassy lines given to Wanda (Coralie Rose). Joseph (Ian Groombridge) cuts quite a commanding figure in his violent seediness, but overall there is too much packed into too thin a plot for one to leave feeling satisfied, one keeps hoping for something of what the first play delivered. Although the acting is tight and there is an interesting and intense scene involving Joseph and a series of red chairs, director Lya Woo again doesn’t give us much that is fresh. The set is also disappointingly indifferent, with the exception of the lovely art work, also by the playwright, which is vibrant and arresting.

Nightly from 7pm - Tuesday to Saturday.

Tuesdays £8, Wednesday to Saturday £12/£10 cons.

Performances at 7pm

Box office: 02077042001.

Alternatively email dstalham@koestlertrust.org.uk  for reservations.

www.henandchickens.com

Hen and Chickens Theatre, 109 St. Pauls Road,
Islington, London, N1 2NA

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