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YALLER SKUNK THEATRE PRESENTS IN MY NAME
Written by Steven Hevey Directed by John Howlett
Old Red Lion Theatre
25 March – 12 April, 2008
A review by Maddy Ryle for EXTRA! EXTRA!
In My Name is a play with a lot of promise attached to it. Starring James Alexandrou – who spent a decade playing Eastenders’ Martin Fowler - as the hapless Grim (Nick), and Ray Panthaki (film credits include 28 Days Later and Ali G Inda House) as London rude boy Royal, it will no doubt have pricked a few more ears before its opening than most fringe theatre is able to. In terms of content the play also pulls no punches; set on 07/07/05, Hevey has chosen to explore the personal perspectives of four very different London residents on that day, and through that make a more general point about how social isolation in the West may have been more of a factor than any religious stigmatism. In his own words, ‘what if [the attacks were] something to do with how we live in the West, how we behave and act as a society that provoked these young men to act in such a violent way?’ ‘Society’ in this four-hand play is represented by Grim, a lovelorn 25 year-old East Londoner whose girlfriend has left him and who lives in a typical flea pit of a flat drinking beer, reading girly mags and ignoring the world outside. Royal, a young Arab who walks and talks the wide boy London attitude but who is in reality lonely and friendless, turns up at Grim’s on the day of the bombings looking for company and carrying a bag of DVDs and WKD. Their fun is spoiled, however, by Grim’s temporary flatmate, the wonderfully psychotic Egg/Dave (everyone has two names in this play), a racist patriot and Iraq veteran (played by actor-producer Kevin Watt) who sees enemies all about him, carries a knife and a revolver, and decides to take the takeaway deliveryman hostage as a suspected terrorist. The deliveryman himself (Adeel Akhtar) is a deeply ambiguous character who is given frustratingly little dialogue and at one moment inexplicably steps out of his bonds in order, it seems, to somehow represent all the wronged Iraqis who have been violated by the US/UK forces – thus playing on the thoroughly mentally destabilised Egg, who has been involved in some heinous crime against a young woman in Iraq. Hevey has set his sights extremely high in his first full-length production, but unfortunately as the play unfolds he struggles to contain his material. The script itself is fresh and funny in the first act, even if the over-egging (excuse pun) of the characters detracts from their credibility. Full of ambiguity and mixed messages, and the characters’ inability to really communicate with each other about what is going on outside, I went into the interval intrigued by what was to come. Sadly, it all started to come unwound in the second act; Egg’s paranoia and his fury that Grim doesn’t really know what’s going on becomes very tedious in the play’s refusal to explain to the audience what is really going on – what are the noises upstairs about? Who’s the deliveryman really supposed to be? Is Egg’s blaming of the attacks on Grim’s atomised and indulgent lifestyle supposed to represent a more enlightened side to this otherwise maladjusted bigot. Grim’s supposed reckoning with himself as the play progresses is also much less than credible; too much of a pathetic caricature in the beginning, we cannot believe in his transformation. Moreover, in practical terms it is incredulous – since he has been inside all day and his phone and TV are bust, how does Grim go from apparent ignorance of the bombings to somehow being able to extemporise on their ramifications? ? No doubt these ambiguities are intended to be thought-provoking, but Hevey has found himself trying to say too much without having the necessary dramatic technique to stop himself getting bogged down in the message, and ultimately the message was lost. Which is a shame, because this is a brave piece of writing and there are many bright aspects to this production. Extremely visceral and demanding of its actors, in the main they make an accomplished and very passionate job of Hevey’s script, which is also well written. The staging and sound production were also excellent – the Old Red Lion formed the perfect dingy sitting room for the action. Unfortunately Howlett’s direction, which is fantastic in parts, didn’t recognise that this would have made a much better one act play - lose twenty minutes of the material and this would have been a sharper, more focussed production. Instead I came away confused and frustrated that such obvious writing talent and passion had failed to deliver on its promise.
Old Red Lion Theatre, 418 St John St., EC1V 4NJ Box Office 020 7837 7816 Tues – Sat 7.30pm Cast: James Alexandrou, Ray Panthaki, Kevin Watt, Adeel Akhtar Produced by Kevin Watt
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