Stage: Mythmaking

The Walworth Farce
by Edna Walsh
with Dan Skinner, Emmet Byrne, Killian Coyle, Rachelle Diedericks
dir Nicky Allpress
sound and music Joseff Harris
set and costumes Anisha Fields
lighting Lucía Sánchez Roldán
Southwark Playhouse Elephant, London • 17.Feb-18.Mar.23

For its first full-scale production, Southwark Playhouse's new Elephant venue is staging a revival of this absurd 2006 pitch-black comedy, a challenging play that requires a lot of work from the audience. Unfolding as a broad farce inside a bleak drama, there is very little resonance in the characters or interaction, although deeper themes add a meaningful exploration of how society tries to create cohesion by creating myths about the past.

The events take place in a grubby flat located very near the site of the theatre in Elephant & Castle, where Dinny (Skinner) has lived for nearly two decades with his now-adult sons Sean (Byrne) and Blake (Coyle). Each day, they re-enact the series of events that ended with Dinny fleeing from their hometown Cork with the boys. This requires Sean and Blake to take on multiple roles (Blake plays the women), prepare a fateful meal and re-enact a family tragedy. And each day the three vie for a best actor trophy. Then on this this particular day, the routine is interrupted by the arrival of supermarket clerk Hayley (Diedericks), who has taken a shine to Sean during his daily shopping trips. 

This jolting shift doesn't happen until the final moments of the first act, long after the audience has lost the ability to keep up with the incessant, impenetrable high-camp banter, rapid-fire character swapping and gallows humour. The second act propels everything intriguingly off the rails, although continually cycling back into the artifice prevents the narrative from developing proper momentum. Hayley's arrival breaks the routine, allowing Sean to remember what actually happened on that momentous day. But scenes within the scenes keep piling on top of each other.

Through all of this, Dinny insists that the boys accept his version of events, which along with his floppy orange wig adds a whiff of proto-Trumpian nastiness. Clearly written as an allegory within a fantasy, it's frustrating that there are so few points at which the audience can identify with anyone on-stage. This means that a couple of potential emotional kicks are badly weakened, and the only thing we take away is a vaguely intellectual consideration of how the truth will eventually conquer lies.

That said, the cast is excellent, fully inhabiting characters with a terrific sense of internalised detail, with Byrne and Coyle particularly impressive as they dive into several lively roles each. They do this with such skill that it kind of undercuts the frequent comments about how sheltered and naive Sean and Blake are supposed to be. Skinner holds the centre with ruthless charisma, while Diedericks gets to react more realistically, even if her character is rather disturbingly sidelined. Meanwhile, the technical production is first-rate, with exceptional sets, costumes, lighting and sound.

Aside from the story's local setting, it's bewildering why such a grim and ultimately unsatisfying play would be chosen to launch a new venue. Perhaps it's a bold statement that we should expect anything here. Indeed, it's a great space. So it's frustrating that the theatre's design is rather awkward, with industrial-style railings that obliterate the view from the balcony, requiring lots of uncomfortable shifting in seats to see anything happening down below.

For information: SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE >

photos by David Jensen • 24.Feb.23