Cynthia’s Daddy developed a pill, a mother’s little helper, that made her family very rich but left her emotionally bankrupt. His absence created an abscess in his daughter, the pus of parental negligence, remedied only by her emulating his pharmaceutical success, a prescription for parental approval.
The action of Cassie Hamilton’s chaotic play, DADDY DEVELOPED A PILL takes place in the lead up to the launch of Cynthia’s father fixation fuelled pharmaceutical and plays out in a porno parlanced pandemonia of pegging, prolapses, and pervasive perversion.
Sarah Greenwood plays Cynthia, a manic, magnetic personality around whom orbit a multitude of characters played in cavalcade caricature by Clay Crighton and Jack Francis West. The portrayals are a pot pouri of accent and antic performed with esurient enthusiasm.
A grotesque burlesque, DADDY DEVELOPED A PILL suffers from a tad too many characters, with a tad too many lines, which likens the narrative to walking knee deep in soft sand.
Featuring a set focused on three doors there’s no surprise that full use of these portals is prescribed, with performers in and out with the frequency of a bedroom farce and while the staging by LJ Wilson is frenetic, the timing is off, which stifles whatever wit the script offers. The finessing of physical business can be fixed, no doubt, to ensure entrances are crisp and exiting exciting.
Deviant and debauched but dulled by a delirium of dialogue, DADDY DEVELOPED A PILL may boast quick acting but it’s no panacea.
DADDY DEVELOPED A PILL plays Kings Cross Theatre till June 19.