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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Open House
Verdict: House-share relationships
Open House is drama about people sharing a house. There are 5 actors (3M, 2F). It's in 2 acts, total 95 minutes including 10 minute interval.
Charlie (Keith Drinkel) is an oldish man with literary ambitions and little chance of a publisher. Daughter Marie (Michelle Duffy) age 24 writes (very) bad poetry ('You are the space between my words') and fantasises about love.
Josh (Kevin Murphy) lies around in pyjamas mixing music, drinking, and spraying acid from his tongue. Lizzy (Selina Chilton) is a tart with an art, drama student turned porn-movie actor. Edgar (James Thorne) is a wimpish businessman.
They're linked by dead Ben and a house. Ben was Marie's boyfriend. Josh was Ben's friend. Lizzy had sex with Ben. Ben told lies. The house belonged to Charlie, but he guaranteed a loan for Ben, which brings Ben's brother Edgar into the house in a position of power over all their destinies. What will Edgar decide? What will happen to everyone? What will it do to Charlie?
The play uses the well-used device of lumping a dead person's acquaintances together to reveal their characters (eg Then Again). It uses 5 characters who are essentially stereotypes. Their dialogue rattles with clichés ('You say that you love me. You don't even know me', delivered portentiously).
The location, people, and dialogue may be sharply familiar to anyone who's lived in a squat or middle-class arty/Bohemian house or known someone who has - perhaps many of the average fringe or theatrical audience. The reality itself can often be dull, and frequently without surprises. Open House catches this exactly.
In fact it's the sharp accuracy with which the play records the achingly predictable lives of Open House's residents that forms its credential. It's almost a documentary, and exactly in step with reality TV.
Open House's people talk a lot, but no-one has anything particularly interesting to say. There are revelations, but none is a surprise. Very little happens. The characters at the end are much the same as when they start out. Open House is a sublime time-capsule of a particular life-type circa 1960-2000 - written with acute observation by Helena Thompson. For the social group described, it's a snapshot of the zeitgeist.
Selina Chilton delivers a glorious Lizzy, bulging enthusiastically from hotpants and petite top. It's a Lizzy who combines self-interest (she needs somewhere to stay) with an effervescent innocence. Michelle Duffy delivers Marie with a combination of mournful, weepy introvert and dangerously loopy enthusiast for love.
Keith Drinkel makes Charlie handsome and debauched in red smoking-jacket. He evokes skilfully a mixture of lust, incest, and paternal affection that's subtle, creepy and unsettling.
Kevin Murphy delivers Josh with subtlety and relentless energy. Josh doesn't - on the surface - look to be loved, and Kevin Murphy's perceptive delivery makes sure this is achieved. James Thorne is a slyly shy Edgar. James Thorne's engaging portrayal makes a character that's drippy and sweet - a contrast to the other parts that helps balance the play.
Director Sarah V Chew lets the pace grind, a tempo that matches the mood of stasis in the household and catches each nuance of its hopelessness.
Sarah V Chew creates couplings for dialogue across the set in a way that recognises and exploits the fact that the characters are often speaking monologues - they talk about themselves while apparently conversing; again a biting reflection of the reality. Her Lizzy (Selina Chilton)'s performance is slightly marred by having a lollipop in her mouth while speaking. The symbolism comes across fast; continuation after this point may irritate.
Costume designer Mia Flodquist delighted with her dressing of The City Club – Ed 04. Her clothes here exactly catch the stereotype of each character. Her transformation of Marie from drab poet to demure-in-black is stunning.
Sound design by Shaun Aston is apt. Lighting design by David Miller is superb, particularly his effects of daybreak bursting into the house.
Set designer Kandr and constructor Emily Wheeler work a fine interpretation of the script's mood into built reality. Their detail - 60s phones, gas fire, sink - turns the mood of the play into reality. Their masterplan is highly creative - two bedrooms and downstairs subtly suggested by minimal construction.
They achieve much of their design with cunning applied and paint effects - calico daubed and smeared for the stair carpet; awful tiles over the sink; pink room with teddy for the daughter; the posters of Ben's old room - that exactly match the play's feel.
