A quaint spoken theatre production that just wanted to be a podcast.
I once had a philosophy professor in college who told us, “If I ever ask you a rhetorical question, I give you full permission to interrupt me, and say, ‘Drop it, Jeremy: what’s in your pocket?’” He was so concerned about coming across as holier-than-thou, I never forgot it.
His words came back to me while I was watching the Traverse Theatre’s world premiere of Badgers, a Theatre Royal Plymouth Production in association with Bristol Old Vic. While there are certainly elements of the production worth writing home about, the overwhelming sentiment is ultimately one of bored anticipation – to finally be told the secret behind the spooky mystery of it all because we certainly wouldn’t be able to piece it together ourselves. Badgers felt like a true crime podcast that was a little too sure of itself. I unfortunately spent the majority of the show wondering what was in its pocket.
A folk tale for the modern age, Badgers is told by The Storyteller, portrayed by the writer herself, Malaika Kegode. In a nameless town, a beloved musician goes missing trying to capture his dead lover in words and “bury” those words in the forest nearby. Only Bridget – the woman who lives just outside town and is commonly considered a witch – knows he’s been turned into a badger for doing so. After all, as the Storyteller says, if you try too hard to hold onto something you’ve lost, you’re apt to lose yourself (and turn into a badger).
Meanwhile, Meles, a struggling podcaster (and the character the audience is meant to “assume” for the entirety of the show, according to the Storyteller) is living in the shadow of her mother, a famous journalist. For the sake of her career ambitions, Meles begins unraveling and then re-raveling the mystery of the lost musician. Her/our dubious creative process is questioned and teased by The Storyteller, who is deeply amused by the cloudy ethics of true crime podcasts.
As that long-winded summary implies, there are many chapters and layers to the story – a challenge that requires a robust theatrical toolkit to tell effectively, which the show initially promises. However, what appears on its surface to be an aesthetically unblemished and cool production ultimately delivers a story which lacks sufficient theatrical guts to pull it off.
The music is the shining north star of the production. Created and performed live by Kegode’s close collaborators Jakabol, musicians Joe Williams and Beth Roberts weave the story through with a seamless soundscape fit for a foggy forest. In delightfully theatrical ways and harnessing their experimental folk-rock sound, they transcend the mere usefulness of their instruments, thankfully becoming so much more than a backing track and joining in the action themselves.
The rest of the piece struggles to maintain that same dynamism. This is largely due to the choice to make the Storyteller the central narrative hinge. While the blend of podcast and theatre is novel, having a Storyteller liaise between the two feels clunky, like a layer that overcomplicates. As the bulk of the story is funnelled through the Storyteller, it follows that much of the audience’s imaginative capacity rests on that character’s ability to ignite our creative kindling. Unfortunately, that character struggles to execute.
Much of the Storyteller’s contribution to the overall narrative manifests as fingers pointed into the “distance” and a near-constant gesturing of hands. While Kegode certainly brings a refreshing level of ease onstage (if she’s not yet gotten into the audiobook market, she should!), the story struggles to come fully to life through a character which seems neither vulnerable to nor changed by it. While purporting to know everything, telling us how silly we (Meles) are, and yet divulging nothing of herself, the Storyteller was not a character I trusted or one that made me invested in the final message of Badgers. By the end, I didn’t feel like asking her what she had in her pocket.
Show Listing: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/badgers
LISTINGS INFORMATION:
Venue: Traverse Theatre
Dates: Aug 5th -30th
Time: various
Ticket prices: £27.00
Fringe box office: 0131 226 0000 / http://www.edfringe.com
Suitable for 14+