This is play that dares to examine the psychotic mind and
which uses movement, space and puppetry to find sympathy for the devils that
beset us all. Based on death penalty investigator Rene Denfeld’s award-winning
novel, it makes for astonishing and absorbing theatre. With subject matter like
this it would be easy to miss your footing; to over-compensate and tumble into
melodrama and yet Joanna and Connie Treves’ adaptation walks the line with some
style.
They use a rich mix of poetic verse and the almost
child-like point of view of the central character, double killer Arden, to find
the enchantments in high security death row: almost nobody will get out of here
alive but there is a chance of redemption for even the most damaged soul.
At times the cast moves together like a gentle breeze, they
draw stage marks on the floor or dates on a white board using the stage as an
extension of inventive, engaging performance.
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| Corey Montague-Sholay, standing Photograph Dina T |
None of this would be possible without a remarkable and
highly flexible cast none more so than Corey Montague-Sholay who plays our
central character Arden, a killer with a soft heart who unfurls himself in the
opening moments to talk of the enchantments of his prison. He won’t talk of his
first kill and mentions his second but before we get to that he tells us of his
mute response to life and how through learning to read his horizons have been
expanded.
His favourite book is The
White Dawn by James Huston and he reads it over and over, finding new words
and meanings as if the author had added them between each reading. This repetition
is important almost as if Arden could live his life again he would find more
and more meaning and maybe follow a different path… meaning is more important
than actions but actions mean more than words.
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| Jade Ogugua Photograph Dina T |
In the prison is The Lady (Jade Ogugua) who works with
the inmates to establish more about their cases and their wishes for what time
they have left. She takes a particular interest in one killer called York (Hunter
Bishop) a man who has given up after a brutal life poisoned from the very
start: he just wants an ending. But The Lady can’t accept that and tries to dig
into his story going to see his Auntie Beth (Georgina Morton) in Sawbridge
Falls, a small town where reputations spread fast and stick, its name saying as
much… Beth describes York as being like sugar, sweet as a baby but soon
hardened.
There is also a man, Troy (Liam Harkins) – one of many
men – who was with his mother. He seems friendly enough, he even shows The Lady
his homegrown crop, but there’s something he’s clearly not revealing through
his words… The line between human and inhumane is very fine.
What is revealed is a life of abuse and degradation,
poisoned from the very start: an inheritance of hopelessness with a foetus
already infected with venereal disease born to a mother abused and abusing. But
the play doesn’t preach and nor does it blame society it just tries to explain.
There needs to be hope above all else and that can be found in the moments in
which you surrender yourself to art.
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| Hunter Bishop Photograph Dina T |
There’s a fallen priest (Jack Staddon) working in the
prison and he becomes close to The Lady. As their connection cautiously moves
closer we discover how he lost faith and how he tried to help a young girl (Georgina
Morton again) he met in a lap-dancing bar only for his own doubts to drive him
away and leave her without her last chance. This life is brutal and those who
don’t kill others are just as liable to remove themselves…
The Lady tries to build York a “castle”, a safe place in
which he can speak his mind and make sense of who he is and not only how he
came to be but whether he wants to continue.
As his own days fade away on death row, Arden’s imagination
runs free as he talks of the electric horses set wild by each execution. The
words are lyrical and one line refers to putting pen to paper “pressed as if my
dreams were leaking out”. But when you have been violated – when you have no
soul, the ideas in your mind become such terrible things…
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| Photograph Dina T |
Montague-Sholay is sensational and if he were a book you
wouldn’t be able to put him down! He gives a performance of suppleness with
tonal control as impressive as his physical expression. We’re left in doubt
that he is a gentle, poetic soul but one who has done the worst possible
things.
Jade Ogugua is also superb as she gradually reveals her own
reasons for trying so hard to help these men: background and conditioning needn’t
defeat life and her gently-nuanced performance sparkles with emotional
intelligence throughout.
The whole cast give their all and are very well choreographed
by Movement Director Emily Orme. The music of David McFarlane is also well
crafted and I particularly liked the medicated trance for the dance club
sequence: house music with the hope taken out!
Genuinely enchanting and highly recommended – don’t miss
this show!
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| Photograph Dina T |
The Enchanted runs
until Saturday 17th June and tickets are available via the box office.
The Bunker is a fascinating venue, literally underneath the Menier
Chocolate Factory, which means you can grab a bite to eat before descending into
this magical world and be enchanted…
Ithankyou rating: ****
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