'Declan' received its online premiere this Friday evening on The Actors' Centre website, raising funds for the centre during their time of closure due to coronavirus. It is a one act, one man play which was recorded in The Actors' Centre written and perfomed by Alistair Hall, and directed by Alexis Gregory.
From a very simple start, the story soon becomes very twisted and convoluted, with many threads, which do, cleverly, all come back together again at the end. We see a yoiung man in his pyjamas, and as the simple but very strange premise of the story starts you know that this is no ordinary monologue
"He was drinking my blood."
The narrator / actor relates half real, half-imagined experiences, becoming the young boy in his recollections. Sometimes he is a young child, soemtimes a teenager, sometimes he talks to his mum or his dad, and it is impossible to tell whether they are real or not, alive or dead. He talks about the ghost of Edward II, his reflection, of vampires; but most of all he talks of Declan. Declan was his best friend, his soulmate, his obsession.
Declan went missing when he was still a boy. He was last seen on the bridge over the canal. He goes to the bridge, egged on by the young beautiful vampire that was sucking his blood. There he sees Declan swimming under the water, and his mother too.
A story where past, present and future intermingle vagariously along with dream and reality, ghosts and vampires. Hall manages to hold our attention, just. If the piece were any longer then he would have struggled. The lack of set (just a black studio theatre wall) and minimal props dotted around the floor, did little to help..The whole lacked atmopshere and context, perhaps due to the medium in which it was being presented. The Actors' Centre are hoping to offer live performances of this play later this year, COVID permitting, and so I hope that a little scenery and context, and the live vibe will help bring this piece to life more.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 20/6/20
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