Tag Archives: Neil McPherson

BANGING DENMARK

★★★

Finborough Theatre

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BANGING DENMARK at the Finborough Theatre

★★★

“the story is well paced and refreshing in its levity”

Banging Denmark is rom-com about a pick up artist who asks a feminist sociologist for help in seducing a Danish woman and hijinks ensue. Written by Van Badham, the piece is a light hearted look at the feminist debates going on in the modern dating scene. The play’s dialogue leans towards timeless rather than topical, but includes some brilliant lines and delivery from the cast.

The stage is set with Jake (Tom Kay) leading a radio show and receiving calls from disgruntled men (James Jip) who spew bile and resentment about women. Jake blasts crude sound effects and bad advice surrounded by pizza boxes and the stench of loneliness. He is enamoured with Anne (Maja Simonsen), an ethereal Danish woman who works at the library. Jake is desperate to connect with her after a failed introduction. We meet Ishtar Madigan (Rebecca Blackstone), a hard-done by sociology PhD student living in her office, supported by Denyse (Jodie Tyack), a computer scientist and ‘nice guy’ Toby (James Jip). Despite their differences, Jake and Ishtar mirror each other in their respective squalor, with Anne’s clean library booth sitting centre stage, connecting and dividing their lives (Set designed by Katy Mo and Leah Kelly). The group become entangled in each other’s lives as we watch them pick at their values and opinions instigated by Anne, or more accurately; their assumptions of Anne.

Aside from being relatively predictable, the story is well paced and refreshing in its levity. Anne breaks the fourth wall in a joyous fashion and the show doesn’t take itself too seriously. Jake and Ishtar both hold strong beliefs about what people want from sex whilst hypocrisy and nuance carry on around them. Anne is a surprising character, Simonsen shows layers of personality whilst representing the gold standard of an empowered woman, having been raised in ‘the best country in the world to be a woman’. Directed by Sally Woodcock, the show makes clever use of the intimate space in the Finborough and brings out the rom-com themes of the piece. Kay and Blackstone centre the events with engaging arguments, volleying insults and observations with great chemistry between the two enemies. Jip portrays Toby as a wise voice of reason pining after endearing and plucky Denyse. Jokes are squeezed for their laughs and sometimes fall flat, however there are many triumphs and fun to be had from this production.

Its premise is entertaining and contemporary, but its execution is inherently a bit old-school with “the more things change, the more they stay the same” attitude coming from its story and resolution. It exists in a heightened realm of possibility in which a misogynist broadcaster would actually reach out to a sociologist for help, and that online abuse generated by someone like Jake would really render an academic homeless. There are attempts at delving into ‘gaming’ and the ‘internet’ but these topics feel underbaked, especially in 2023 (Twitter is called ‘X’ now!). The character study of Jake felt inherently more kind then these men appear in real life, and Ishtar seemed very persecuted for a sociology post-grad in UCL. These factors make for a good comedy, but perhaps not the most grounded story. The ending is a delightfully happy one brimming with optimism…probably because the play was written before the advent of Andrew Tate and a new wave of much more vile rhetoric. If only we could go back to the days of laughing at cringy sound bites and complaining about video games. Banging Denmark is a quippy dissection of feminism in modern dating dressed up in a well-crafted rom-com that occasionally struggles to be current.


BANGING DENMARK at the Finborough Theatre

Reviewed on 19th April 2024

by Jessica Potts

Photography by Ali Wright

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

FOAM | ★★★★ | April 2024
JAB | ★★★★ | February 2024
THE WIND AND THE RAIN | ★★★ | July 2023
SALT-WATER MOON | ★★★★ | January 2023
PENNYROYAL | ★★★★ | July 2022
THE STRAW CHAIR | ★★★ | April 2022
THE SUGAR HOUSE | ★★★★ | November 2021

BANGING DENMARK

BANGING DENMARK

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The Straw Chair

The Straw Chair

★★★

Finborough Theatre

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The Straw Chair

The Straw Chair

Finborough Theatre

Reviewed – 21st April 2022

★★★

 

“There is humanity and tragedy in the piece, but despite the magnificent performances, the emotional punch is too tender”

 

It is 1735, and life on St Kilda – in the far reaches of the Outer Hebrides – is pretty stark. And everything smells and tastes of fish. It is an abandoned isle, populated by abandoned people. A place where the crashing waves erode the shoreline and, if you let it, the spirit. But not so Lady Grange, the central figure of Sue Glover’s play based on the real-life wife of the eighteenth-century Lord Grange. A Shakespearean mix of King Lear and Miranda, she whips up her own storm that threatens to silence the unrelenting winds that sweep in from all sides of the island.

Lady Grange was exiled by her estranged husband to the Outer Hebrides, on the basis that she was hysterical, drunk, disorderly and uncivilised. In truth she knew too much about her husband; his Jacobite sympathies shrouded by hypocrisy and political pragmatism. Better she go and rage against the storm in isolation, rather than upset his veneered city life.

The turmoil is all internal and the interest promised by the historical facts doesn’t translate entirely successfully here. Anna Short’s sound design evokes the peace of the farmyard rather than the ravaged sentiments of the central character. The first act serves mainly to set the scene, into which Aneas, a bible-clutching minister and his new wife, Isabel come on a mission. Isabel, all innocence and compliance, is initially the antithesis of Lady Grange. What Glover’s writing cleverly reveals, however, is how the two women have more in common than we originally think. Along with Oona, Grange’s maid, the three women are all trapped in their own gender-defying roles of the time.

Siobhan Redmond is a force as the unhinged Grange – sexual and dangerous; one minute syrup and flirtation, the next acid and acrimony. Redmond portrays a Hamlet-like figure: mad at the world rather than mad within one’s head. Rori Hawthorn is equably believable as Isabel; an ember in the shadow of Finlay Bain’s surreptitiously domineering Aneas, yet Hawthorn reveals the flickers of a burning injustice. The flames fanned by Redmond’s powerful performance.

But it takes until the second act for the momentum to really take hold. Jenny Lee, wonderful as the no-nonsense Oona, is drawn into the fold and the play now belongs to the women. Polly Creed’s direction is finally allowed to flourish, particularly as the trio bond over shared whisky and dissatisfaction. Glover’s underlying comments on gender and power are unleashed as the tongues are loosened, while Bain takes a generous back step, yet without relinquishing his masterful portrayal of the steadfast missionary.

“The Straw Chair” is a play that demands attention, although it does take a while to grab it. Its hold on us is tenuous, but if it lapses, we are soon lured back in, with the added help of some plaintive music. As well as commanding the stage, Hawthorn (with co-violinist, Elisabeth Flett) provides a lyrical, pre-recorded underscore. There is humanity and tragedy in the piece, but despite the magnificent performances, the emotional punch is too tender. We want to hear the waves crash, rather than lap, on the rocky Hebridean shoreline.

 

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Carla Joy Evans

 


The Straw Chair

Finborough Theatre until 14th May

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
The Sugar House | ★★★★ | November 2021

 

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