The Knee Jerk of Sloth, Zoo Venues

By E.L. Hardy

Going by the talent I've seen at this year's festival, East 15 is the drama school to go to. Graduating students on the three year Acting and Contemporary Theatre Course (The CT) participate in ‘Debut Festival' - a pioneering initiative that offers new actors the opportunity to perform new plays in rep at the fringe - plays that have been written, staged and directed by the students themselves. And this year, The CT have taken the Fringe by the balls with four critically sucessful plays: Tea Time Story, Chlorine, Café Ruse and The Knee Jerk of Sloth.

I had the pleasure of seeing the latter - a wispy and other worldly play set in an old glue factory. With ethereal musical accompaniment from multi-instrumentalist and writer Pelagie Green, the scene is set for the hour-long adventure into dissolution and delirium. Four hopeless homeless characters, with relationships that are initially obscure and later even more so, scurry to make sense of their existence within the toxic surroundings. Deliberately abstract, the audience share in the confusion, at times finding clarity in Shane's philosophical ramblings just to be propelled once more into befuddlement, for example, by unexpected aggression from Blake. The obscure world of the play is beautifully contained, but occasionally the thread is too frayed to follow.

James Marks has a difficult job with less time than the others to establish his character, Pete. Still his affections for the omnipotent Lillian are unmistakably clear and his optimistic performance is touching. Nathan Parkinson is strong as the domineering and irrational Blake. However, his character feels slightly underwritten - not as strongly anchored to the story as the others. It's not clear how he fits or why he behaves as he does. Scarlet Sherrif is wonderfully batty as hyper-intelligent Shane and, silently holding the show together is the captivating Louisa Skaaning as damaged Queenie, who is distinctly reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland's Dormouse - popping out from under the table and sipping from her tea cup.

Director Raine Coles has painted the picture of the play and its characters in intricate detail. However, the tension remains at one level from beginning to end and some potentially upsetting or comical moments are undermined by less vital distractions. Lacking an arc or a crescendo, The Knee Jerk of Sloth is more of an invitation for the audience to glance into its world rather than an affecting abstract parallel of reality which, I suspect, it was initially intended to be.

The Knee Jerk of Sloth

Zoo Theatre,

Daily until August 25th at 17.00

★★★

@postscriptjour

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