THEATRE REVIEW: Frog - King's Ams Theatre - Salford.

Frog is a very strong politiucal drama - although why it is titled 'Frog' I am still uncertain.

In an un-named country, not too dissimilar from the UK, a young man has gone into hiding. He is the leader of a rebel 'guerrilla' band or anti-government organisation, and they were involved in a peaceful act of 'terrorism' when a police officer was shot and killed. He is now wanted for that murder.

His mother on the other hand is worried sick and although she does not know where he is hiding is constantly telephoning him - from a public telephone box - to see if she can help, and get him back home safely. He uses this effectively to his own advantage and manipulates his own mother to do things and be complicit in things which she believes she is doing for the best.

A very tense and edgy atmosphere is created right from the start, and the composite set makes good use of the space to show three seperate and contrasting areas at all times, using the lighting to indicate place.

There was some very clever - perhaps too clever - wordplay in giving the protagonist and his mother the surname Reus. As the narrative explained, it is Latin, but what the narrative didn't do, was translate it for us. It translates as 'guilty'. There was further clever wordplay later on as a ficticious name was ceated by Reus, again another Latin name, but the cleverness outdid itself here as I did not hear nor understand the name and therefore did not see the connection which the police officer did, and was a very essential and cathartic part of the plot development.

That notwithstanding, the three actors in this evening's one hour drama were excellently cast and worked superbly with each other.  Cameron "Roman" Reus, was given a dissarmingly nonchalant malevolence by Michael Schenk, whilst his mother was played by the excellent Maddy Myles. Her characterisation was superb and vocally rich. (how lovely to hear a properly trained voice with excellent technique for a change!). The police inspector was played with studied realism and earnestness by Rose Karlan.

A very strong script, and delivered at a pace which kept you at the edge of your seat at all times. What a shame that the end was so appallingly poor and a total 'cop-out' (no pun intended!). Right up until the final couple of minutes this was a highly tense and quite remarkable piece of theatre both in writing and acting. I do believe a different or more realistic ending needs to be found though if this piece is to be taken further. And why is it called 'Frog'?

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 22/7/19