Complicité
Finn Lanchester who also directs
Scorcher Theatre Company
Jack Studio Theatre
Star rating: 4
Finn Lanchester’s one act, two hander is original, funny, thoughtful and beautifully acted. So it ticks a lot of boxes.
Simon (Alex Westbrook) is an idealistic primary school teacher protesting on a lonely London street. It’s a generic protest about climate change, oil and everything else which is arguably wrong with the world. He is voluntarily handcuffed to a rather evocative tree (set by Lorenzo Rangoni and Alice Gray) and conducting phone sex with his girlfriend. Then along comes Benoit (Victor Ciri), a Frenchman, a cynical oil field manager who believes that natural resources are there to be grabbed, They argue, josh, fight and eventually form a friendship of sorts. Underlying it all is a forthcoming climax – no spoilers.
Both are fine actors and the way they time Lanchester’s sparky dialogue is impressive. They bounce off each other well and Lanchester is clearly a strong director. In 65 minutes the conversation ranges over sex, European stereotypes, the importance of family, world politics, responsibility, monkey mating habits, death and environmentalism among other things. It’s often laugh aloud funny and the pace never flags.
Apart from the tree, the set comprises a stage strewn with banners, flyers and detritus of protesting. Klara Rychtarcikova’s lighting gives us a blue lit, faintly eerie take on London on the back wall and some pretty dramatic effects at the end. And Elias Dani’s rumbling, escalating sound track ably connotes the cataclysmic event we are working up to.
All in all it’s a rather memorable, enjoyable piece of theatre, well worth catching.
