Theatre review: Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness
I showed vanessaw the cool, antique-style flyer for Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness and she looked interested in coming to see it with me. Then I thought it was only polite to mention that the writer is Anthony Neilson, whose Relocated last year left her a quivering wreck, and suddenly found myself going alone. Shame really 'cause I think she'd have liked it, as instead of horror this 2002 play of his is much more a comedy (apparently he wrote it to cheer himself up during a bout of depression.) There is a fair share of splatter and gore, but as Steve Marmion's revival is produced by Rupert Goold's company Headlong, this probably shouldn't be much of a surprise.
It's 1881, and the final performance of Edward Gant's (Simon Kunz) travelling freakshow. As the freaks he presents are more psychologically than physically freakish, they aren't actually there, their stories told by Gant's associates Ludd, Dearlove and Madame Poulet (so called because she can allegedly lay eggs.) We get two very broad tragicomic tales, of a girl with bad skin whose spots produce pearls, and a man who resorts to trepanning to have the memories of his lost love removed from his brain. But the stories affect Gant more than he expected, and the show goes off-course as he succumbs to his own loneliness. The play is very funny, with a lot of shamelessly naff lines and a number of very near-the-knuckle ones. I was really glad it was a playtext programme, so on the bus home I got to re-read lines like "He said there was no place in the Catholic Church for the sexual molestation of children... so they're building one." All four cast members are great fun - Paul Barnhill as the somewhat self-important Ludd gives great timing to reading Ludd's dodgy poetry; Sam Cox as Dearlove has both deadpan moments and some great OTT characters as well; while Emma Handy's Madame Poulet makes eating a doughnut funnier (and more disgusting) than you'd think possible. ("Jammy Ring?" "No, I used a dockleaf.")
A lot of credit has to go to Tom Scutt's very detailed design of a Victorian stage, and Tom Mills' atmospheric music, for really bringing the world of the play's black humour to life. There is a tinge of menace throughout, especially at the end, and also a tangible sadness, but what mostly stands out is the comedy which spans every kind of genre, from the subtle, to the offensive, to the outright childish (the world's biggest zit spraying its contents all over the stage.) I'm still giggling when I remember bits of it now. Thematically perhaps it's a bit vague but it's unlike anything else you're likely to see.
Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness by Anthony Neilson is booking until the 11th of April at the Soho Theatre.
It's 1881, and the final performance of Edward Gant's (Simon Kunz) travelling freakshow. As the freaks he presents are more psychologically than physically freakish, they aren't actually there, their stories told by Gant's associates Ludd, Dearlove and Madame Poulet (so called because she can allegedly lay eggs.) We get two very broad tragicomic tales, of a girl with bad skin whose spots produce pearls, and a man who resorts to trepanning to have the memories of his lost love removed from his brain. But the stories affect Gant more than he expected, and the show goes off-course as he succumbs to his own loneliness. The play is very funny, with a lot of shamelessly naff lines and a number of very near-the-knuckle ones. I was really glad it was a playtext programme, so on the bus home I got to re-read lines like "He said there was no place in the Catholic Church for the sexual molestation of children... so they're building one." All four cast members are great fun - Paul Barnhill as the somewhat self-important Ludd gives great timing to reading Ludd's dodgy poetry; Sam Cox as Dearlove has both deadpan moments and some great OTT characters as well; while Emma Handy's Madame Poulet makes eating a doughnut funnier (and more disgusting) than you'd think possible. ("Jammy Ring?" "No, I used a dockleaf.")
A lot of credit has to go to Tom Scutt's very detailed design of a Victorian stage, and Tom Mills' atmospheric music, for really bringing the world of the play's black humour to life. There is a tinge of menace throughout, especially at the end, and also a tangible sadness, but what mostly stands out is the comedy which spans every kind of genre, from the subtle, to the offensive, to the outright childish (the world's biggest zit spraying its contents all over the stage.) I'm still giggling when I remember bits of it now. Thematically perhaps it's a bit vague but it's unlike anything else you're likely to see.
Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness by Anthony Neilson is booking until the 11th of April at the Soho Theatre.