The Broken God’s production of The Cherry Orchid is funny yet sometimes strays into overly silly territory.
The Cherry Orchid is a cheesy, funny performance. The plot follows a tidy homeowner (Tom Lane) whose evening of cleaning is disturbed by Agent James King (Gregor Copeland) who comes through a window of the house as he’s an assassin on the run and the home used to be his. Unexpectedly, the pair becomes friends and the Homeowner decides to help King make the night out alive.
The set design was very imaginative with the cupboard being used as an entrance and exit to the stage. The scene changes were also creative, particularly the one where the Homeowner (who presented symptoms of OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) felt it was necessary to flick the lights on and off three times and in the darkness there was a scene change. However, there were moments where the writing made the show feel like a pantomime. Whether this was on purpose by Calum McArthur (writer and director) was unclear. Constant jokes about ‘Brain’ spoiling himself when he was killed and constant innuendos about sex – these were done in a way that ended up landing flatly and started to feel very childish due to the subject matter and writing. Despite this, the twist at the end between the homeowner and Agent James King was unexpected and an intelligent way to answer unanswered questions about their relationship.
The third actress, Hannah Clancy-Hughes multiroling was entertaining but sometimes brought a childish persona to the characters which occasionally was entertaining but sometimes kept them quite surface level. With the multi-roling there were often times when there was no deep connection between the characters making the plot feel two-dimensional. However, the physicality all the actors brought to their roles was a joy to watch.
The show is around 80 minutes long, which was the appropriate time for the action. *slight spoiler ahead* However, the ending with the actors playing policemen was unnecessary. It can be argued the ending of the twist would have been more impactful to the audience without the inclusion of the policemen. The interval is only 30 minutes into the show and with a play at this length, the interval was deeply not needed and just prolonged the evening.
The Cherry Orchid does have humorous moments and if fart jokes and dildos on people’s heads is your type of humour this show will be a delightful way to spend your evening. It is on at the Drayton Arms Theatre till the 28th of September