This show was brash in its depiction of multiple divergent contemporary subjects – random acts of violence, serial murders, guns, home decor, middle class aspirations, property prices, suburbia, homelessness –  in a very hybrid style mixing stand up comedy and revue (including a song), black comedy, comedy of manners, vignette, anime, and reportage. 

The script is from England, where it was produced five years ago (to quite mixed reviews). It is written by an acclaimed upcoming writer , Philip Kitley. It is certainly bold in its outreach to relevant subject matter, repeating, underlining and stressing Relevance at every turn. There is no doubt some of the script at least is overwritten – the montage of one liner garden party repartee is fine as a technique, but there is something very familiar about proud suburbanites living their dream. For that matter there is something a bit thin about depictions of graphic violence, when they are yoked to homeless victims. Social violence is a serious subject and not easily deployed in a frivolous manner.

The couple, you see, get caught in a spiral of killings of homeless persons, who enter their house or whom they kidnap – in order to achieve fantasy restorations of different rooms, on the way to the dream home promised by the agent Melissa Jones) 

The lead actors (Nicola Denton as Jill, Michael Becker as Ollie) do this play very well, given the challenge of the script with each asked to flick between different acting styles, and maintain studied minute comedy of manners expressions. Nicola Denton in particular shone, and Michael Becker gave a solid nuanced portrayal of the duplicitous husband. Melissa Jones worked well in two conflicting roles, including that of the homeless individual. 

Good performers indicate studied direction from Victor Kalka.

I tried to find coherence in the piece – that a thesis of class warfare was being portrayed, with the rising middle class responsible for slow deaths of the homeless, in order to maintain their standard of living. I am not sure that such a thesis can be attributed, or if it can whether it is in fact true as an explanation of homelessness (as simply as it was told at least).

The show then becomes a burlesque montage of extraneous happenings, offering glimpses of our commercial society through a uncontrolled energy and dislocation that our society can seem to be. It throbs with themes of impersonalisation and gaps in our social fabric. There are some good one-liners, and the audience did response at stages and seemed to like the show as a whole, at its end. 

In part the enthusiastic response could be for difficulties with sickness encountered by the show during its run, and also support for yet another small theatre production done under too limited resources and the goodwill of its team. And of course, recognition of the talents of the cast.

I was not sure of the set with its one dimensioned long hanging tinsel strips, or how the lighting engaged with this cyclorama. The Chippen Street space does make demands for quick bump in – but some limiting of the large space, or a three dimensional constructed frame, might have worked better and given dimensions fo the lighting.

It is good to see theatre probe issues in our society, such as homelessness, but this play needs to be either deeper in its probe, or more whimsical in its comedy, of current manners. The performance reviewed took place on the 5th August at the Chippen Street Theatre.

Review by Geoffrey Sykes