The Beast's Pen

Photo: Johan Persson

Writer: Stephen Adly Guirgis

Director: Michael Longhurst

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Some people seem to enjoy jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Take Danny Sapani for example. Having recently completed a run as King Lear at the Almeida Theatre, the actor now makes the short trip across North London to play an old man whose life is descending into chaos in Between Riverside and Crazy, Stephen Adult Guirgis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama.

There is something vaguely Shakespearean in how the writer integrates tragedy with comedy and uses symbolic imagery to highlight profound themes. Known as “Pops”, Walter (Sapani) retired from the New York Police Department (NYPD) eight years earlier after being shot by a rookie cop. He lives in a large, rent-controlled apartment on Manhattan’s fashionable Riverside Drive, but his home has become a refuge for petty criminals and drug users and his landlord wants him out.

Walter’s apartment, as seen in Max Jones’ set design, is spacious, but shambolic and unwelcoming. A tall Christmas tree that had long ago lost its needles stands in one corner, still lit up. Walter’s wife had died just before Christmas and it is as if time had stood still for him at that moment. Sapani’s towering performance takes ownership of the stage and of the play. His Walter is stubborn, embittered and bombastic. Being black, the character views every situation through the prism of racism and his generosity of spirit sees him supporting causes that are not always worthy.

Sapani’s Walter dwarfs other characters in director Michael Longhurst’s well crafted and well acted production. Martins Imhangbe is Junior, Walter’s well meaning son, who may (or may not) have made his girlfriend Lulu (Tiffany Gray) pregnant. Sebastian Orozco is a seedy Oswaldo, a desperate drug addict who scrounges off Walter’s charity, and Ayesha Antoine is an eccentric “Church Lady” who advocates strange treatments for his ailments.

In two pivotal scenes, two police officers, Dave (Daniel Lapaine) and Audrey (Judith Roddy), who are engaged to marry each other, appear to attempt to persuade Walter to settle claims against the NYPD. Interestingly, they are the play’s only white characters and the adversarial roles that they assume strengthens the racism subtext of a drama that is not primarily built on that theme.

There are times when it feels that the play is too American, specifically too New York, to resonate fully with United Kingdom audiences. Undoubtedly, some of the drama’s relevance has become lost in the Atlantic crossing. That said, its portrait of a man who is suffering the ravages of ageing and watching is domain crumbling is truly memorable.

Performance date: 13 May 2024

Photo: Alex Brenner

Writer and director: Stephen Unwin

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In essence, Laughing Boy, Stephen Unwin’s new 100-minute one-act play, is a dramatised documentary. However, the vitality of the writer/director’s production blows away the dryness that can be associated with such a format and elevates it to a level at which information and entertainment are delivered in equal measures.

The play’s source is Justice for Laughing Boy, a book by Sara Ryan, an Oxford academic with a serious grievance to air. Janie Dee plays her with a sense of tempered rage, impassioned but, at most times, rational. Sara’s son, Connor Sparrowhawk, dies at the age of 18 in 2013, drowning in a bath at a National Health Service residential unit. Connor has learning disabilities and he suffers from epilepsy. The play traces Sara’s journey towards uncovering the truth about what happened to Connor and then seeking justice on his behalf. 

Connor, a lover of buses and lorries, is present on stage throughout the play. Alfie Friedman shows remarkable range in playing him, giving us glimpses into the world that he inhabits as he moves from a gentle and vulnerable boy to an unmanageable and occasionally violent teenager. Most importantly, he brings out the “magic” that endears Connor so much to his family and others

A white screen envelops the small stage in Simon Higlett’s set design and images are projected onto it. Forbes Masson plays Rich, Sara’s partner and support through her ordeals. This leaves four actors – Lee Braithwaite, Charlie Ives, Molly Osborne and Daniel Rainford – to play all other characters in the story plus a Jack Russel Terrier. It is their energy that injects life into the production.

This is a story of failures in care by supposed carers and disrespect for the basic human rights of society’s most vulnerable members. Inquests and enquiries follow over a period of years and the writer points the finger of blame at medical malpractice, overstretched resources, underfunding, etc, leaving no room for arguments to be balanced. The play is presented as one woman’s campaign to battle through the excuses and cover-ups to find truth and accountability.

This is gripping and thought-provoking suff. Yes the play’s final sections drag on for far too long. but dragging on for far too long is precisely what much of this distressing story is about.

Performance date: 30 April 2024