For We Merry Dancers, a new company founded by Oldhamer Amy Gavin, their debut production at Manchester's Hope Mill theatre was the challenging and hard choice of Swiss dramatist Max Frisch's surreal and abstract dark and cautionary comedy, 'The Fire Raisers'.
Gavin also directed this debut production herself, and one might almost say that her direction of the play was excellent. Just a couple of minor instances within the direction stopped it from becoming masterful. The play is very difficult to realise and is intended to be played at quite a pace, never letting the momentum drop; and sadly Gavin chose to ask her cast to put too much weight on certain phrases or situations which almost brought the action to a stand-still. If the pace had not dipped at all throughout, then this would have been a masterclass in theatricality.
The premise of the piece is that the town is being systematically arsoned by individual or individuals unknown and the fire department is on high alert. The preferred method of arson is for the perpetrator to gain access to the property through fraud and deception and then after staying in the house for a day or so, burn it to the ground. Despite this knowledge, our anti-hero Gottlieb Biedermann (played with obvious skill and delight by Rupert Hill), accepts first a 'homeless; man into his house, and later his friend, an ex-convict, and despite their obvious intentions, Gottlieb is blinded by self-righteousness and disbelief, becoming an unwitting accomplice in his own destruction. The two cons, Schmidt and Eisenring are played here with verve and aplomb by Kyle O'Neill and Michael Clay.
Absurdist humour is possibly the most difficult kind to stage, especially when it carries a relevant and overriding caution or message (as it does here), and this ensemble cast, which includes a Greek-style chorus of fire-fighters do everything they can to keep the suspense burning, even though we seem to know how it will all end. And after 80 minutes of act one of this play, we find we were right. We think the play ends there, and in effect it actually does. However, Gavin had chosen to place a short interval here and then perform the 'epilogue' of this play as a second act of around 25 minutes' duration. the epilogue is set in Hell, and although it does give the cast a chance to show a different side to their consummate abilities, it does feel a little like an afterthought and is not as funny as the main body of the play.
Sound and lighting added greatly to the overall feel of this play this afternoon, but I did feel a little 'let down' by the underwhelming nature of the act one denouement. We could smell and see smoke, but considering everything else was so wonderful, it just was a little disappointing.
However, for a debut production and a directorial debut, this is impressive stuff indeed, and I look forward to seeing what We Merry Dancers next project will be!
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
On - 14.3.26
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