There’s a retro vibe about The Quentin Dentin Show with its rock stylings, gold-laced jumpsuit
chic and post-Timewarp choreography
and yet… it is so very now.
Ultimately the play is so very uncompromising in terms of genre expectations
and its relationship to the audience. It’s about the power of delusion and the
preference for alternative reality over truth. So much so that it challenges
the audience to look a little bit closer at what they are watching and why.
It was striking to hear one audience member saying she
wished it wouldn’t end which, whilst it speaks volumes for the dramatic
qualities on display also rather chillingly makes the QDS’ point: when times
get even remotely hard we opt for fantasy.
There is an uplifting momentum to events and the wit is
sharp and funny but this is a call to wake up and wake up again for the levels
of self-deception are, like the plot itself, buried deep. As in a nightmare the
leads seem to wake up repeatedly but can they really escape their everyday
fate?
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| A song and dance about FISH! |
All of which may sound a bit of a downer but any show
featuring a song with in which the cast dance along with inflatable fishes
can’t be bad nor can one in which an ever-present band plays throughout and in
character even as we left… they’re probably still playing now.
The band features Archie Wolfman on drums and sunglasses,
Mickey Howard on guitar – fascinating to watch him work up close; the guy has
some chops! – plus Henry Carpenter on keyboards. Carpenter not only wrote the
music and lyrics, he co-wrote the book, with Tom Crowley, and is musical
director. He reminded me of a young Julian Cope… just cool and with talent to burn
(I probably hate him actually).
As the audience entered the theatre the band were playing
something like Can attempting loungecore whilst a voice told us not to spill
our drinks, kick the seats in front and to turn off our mobile communications
devices. Already the fourth wall’s lying in ruins and there’ll be a lot more of
that to come…
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| Lottie-Daisy Francis, Max Panks and Freya Tilly |
We also have three figures, a tall man, Number 3 (Luke
Lane) and two energetic women dancers Freya Tilly and Lottie-Daisy Francis who
occasionally break their bone-crunching robotic routines to smile wildly at the
audience; their mile-wide grins disappearing as quickly as their empty
arrivals…
Our voice-over MC (Freddie Fullerton) tells us that
Number 3 has been selected to be Quentin Dentin and he wishes him every success
whilst warning of the pitfalls that befell Number 292. New Quentin is very
excited and sings a song about it; if he does well he will be rewarded with an
upgrade…
Quentin’s role is obscure but soon we meet a couple,
Keith (Max Panks) and Nat (Shauna Riley) who are giving “rut” a bad name. He’s
a self-deluded world away from finishing his novel whilst she works all the
hours in a pharmacy. They bicker exactly like a couple who’s ill-formed and
unspecified dreams are fading, blown away by years of routine and fear of
change.
 |
| The ensemble |
Nat goes out on the lash with her mates leaving Keith
alone with what thoughts he can muster. His radio is sounding strange and
suddenly there’s a man… dressed in a white suit with gold trimmings and
grinning like a game show host. Exactly
like a game show host.
It’s Quentin! And he’s here to offer Nat the chance to be
happy, just sign on the dotted line… and benefit from the sure-fire, can’t-lose
process of The Programme! Quentin is persistent and he is manically charming.
Nat returns early and is soon being as persuaded as her fella that this is a
once in a lifetime, solid gold chance for second chances even with what appear
to be minor contractual obligations involving reduction in brain function…
They sign and suddenly the lights go up and they realise
there’s an audience in front of them – a wall of faces. This is now a game show
and the prize is their lives but is that for winning or losing…?
 |
| Guitar wizard and the bloke who wrote the book, the lyrics and the music... |
The Quentin Dentin Show is dazzling and like everything
you’ll have read since its initial run. It’s also subtle and subversive and I
love that way it wrongfoots the audience… It’s a call to wake up and put your
good times in perspective. Me? I’ve still got that book to write too!
Adam Lenson’s direction uses the space so well as the show
spills out into the audience (don’t worry, you’re… perfectly safe…) and
Caldonia Walton’s choreography generates a kinetic energy that sucks the watching
wall of faces in, using every inch of the stage.
 |
| Freya Tilly and Lottie-Daisy Francis |
Luke Lane’s energy is going to burn him a bright future
but all the cast are simply superb and in good voice too. Freya Tilly’s
movement is especially impressive and her smile manages, if anything, to be
even more disturbing than Quentin’s… Lottie-Daisy Francis moves with equal
grace and poise and these two can sing!
Max Panks and Shauna Riley charm as the all-too
believable 20-somethings waiting for their lives to begin: we hope they and we
make the right choices…
The Quentin Dentin Show runs until Sat 29th
July and you’d have to be mad not to get with The Programme…
Tickets available from the Box Office. The Tristan Bates
Theatre is a lovely venue just off Cambridge Circus and blessed with very
welcome air-conditioning!
Ithankyou rating: ****
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