Mugs Arrows by Eddie Elks, The Old Red Lion Theatre
By Sophia Longhi
After writing two plays about abstract artists, Eddie Elks was urged to 'write something closer to home'. Although always great advice for a writer - how can you go wrong if you write about what you know? - his previous two plays had received critical acclaim; his last play, Botallack O'Clock, was shortlisted for Time Out's Best Fringe Show in 2011 and was taken to New York last year for the Brits Off Broadway Season.
With such an impressive track record, more sound advice comes to mind: 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'. However, Third Man Theatre are an award-winning company that specialise in new writing and one gets the feeling that Eddie Elks is a writer who thrives on experimentation. When work-shopping his new piece, dark comedy Mugs Arrows, at The Bike Shed Theatre in Exeter, he admits that the play took off in many different directions, all of which he was open to exploring.
Mugs Arrows, taken on (bravely, perhaps) by Islington's Old Red Lion Theatre, is the end result of Elks writing about a theme 'closer to home'. Set in a local pub in rural North Derbyshire, Elks was inspired by his childhood memories of playing darts, having been given his first dartboard by his granddad, aged six. The play explores the relationship between two friends, Pat and Ed, played by Rhys King and Eddie Elks himself, and the threat of change, which bulldozes into their sheltered lives in the form of their best friend's new bride from Surrey, Sarah, played by Chiara Wilde.
With the live action of a darts game on stage, the dialogue flits around each person's turn naturally and entertainingly, and although darts isn't particularly exciting game to watch (sorry, darts fans), in the context of a play, it is; it is different. The chemistry between life-long friends, Pat and Ed, is great and one may have been content to listen in, as a fly on the wall, to their anecdotes and Royle Family-esque banter. The arrival of irritating Sarah, disturbs the dynamic and the two friends (and the audience, too) are discomforted.
Elks North Derbyshire setting certainly would have been a change in backdrop for theatre-goers, yet if it wasn't for Ed's authentic, broad accent, the play could have been set anywhere rural (maybe Yorkshire or Lancashire, judging by Pat's mixed-bag accent). Sarah from Surrey, often referencing 'the City' in London, took it too far out of the sticks for me and maybe it would have been more believable for her to have been from Nottingham, somewhere closer but still a world away from North Derbyshire, which would have also made the threat of commercial development and change more real.
However, having processed the second half of Mugs Arrows, I doubt that 'real' is something that Elks was too fussed about. Dancing goats, blue tongues and bloody noses all contribute to make this play the zany, off-the-wall dark comedy that it is and it certainly celebrates Artistic Director Ken McClymont's return to the Old Red Lion Theatre with a bang. If Mugs Arrows is the result of writing something close to home, Elks's home is still on another planet to the rest of us. And why not?
Performances 3rd-21st June : Tuesday – Saturday at 7.30pm Matinees: Saturday at 3pm / Sunday at 2pm Ticket prices: £15 full price / £13 concession / £10 Sunday
Running Time: 1 hour 20 minutes with no interval
To book general tickets for Mugs Arrows at the Old Red Lion, call the box office on 0844 412 4307 or visit www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk
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