Pleasance Theatre Archives - Page 13 of 28

The Unseen Hour

Pleasance Theatre

Reviewed – 24th October 2019

★★★★

“We’ve come to listen to the voices, and any visuals are just comic icing on the cake”

Spending an hour in the company of James Carney, Brice Stratford, Joey Timmins and The Unseen Hour is a bit like getting on one of those rollercoaster rides. It’s a gravity defying journey that turns your expectations inside out and upside down—and, as it gathers speed, leaves you realising that whatever notions of “real” you may have had at the start—well, forget reality, hang onto your hat, and for sixty minutes, just enjoy the ride. This is another theatre production presented as a “live radio broadcast,” (and this seems to be a thing on the London Fringe right now). Creator, writer and producer Carney has gained something of a cult following by making podcasts of fifty of these shows. Yes, fifty. So if you’re wondering what you’ve missed by not attending The Unseen Hour’s only appearance at the 2019 London Horror Festival at the Pleasance Theatre in Islington, fear not. You can revel in the experience either through your favourite podcast app, or, if you’re old school like me, catch the visuals and the audios by finding it on You Tube. Carney promises that number fifty one, which was performed last night, should shortly be joining its siblings online.

How to describe a show that begins by describing a dystopian future where a narcissistic scientist finds himself battlling robots and an evil corporation, to protect mutating teenagers? You could be forgiven for thinking that the future is already here. What sets Carney’s show apart though, is the way in which he and the company loop back into the past for their inspiration. Billed as a mashup of Welcome To Night Vale and The Goon Show, or Blackadder and The Twilight Zone, The Unseen Hour does indeed borrow its characterisations and voices from these earlier classics. But don’t arrive expecting the sleek production values of those past television shows. The stage is a mess of microphones and oddities for making live foley sound effects. The actors dress in costumes utterly unrelated to any character they might be playing. It doesn’t matter. We’ve come to listen to the voices, and any visuals are just comic icing on the cake.

Voices are the strength of these performers, and they provide a dizzying array of different characters, all with distinct accents. What gives the show its unique charm however, are the bumbling asides as the three performers juggle parts, sound effects and direct address to audience members—whom they seem to know a lot about. It gives the show an authenticity of being part of the experience that goes beyond removing the fourth wall. And there is an established pattern to the show, despite the running gags, anarchic storylines and just-in-time performance styles. Every show, including this one, includes a guest monologue and a guest musician. It gives Carney, Stratford and Timmins (and the audience) a chance to catch their collective breath. Anna Maguire (the monologue performer) and Kevin Maguire (the musician) on this evening, provided a welcome (and talented) change of pace at each interval.

It’s easy to get hooked on this kind of dramatic experience. That said, it is a bit bewildering for the first time visitor. There’s not really any “tune in” time, because the performers jump right in with their stream-of consciousness monologues and random associations, and assume you can keep up. As said before, it’s best to let go of expectations and be carried along in the show’s slipstream. As ancient sages have so often remarked, it’s not the destination that’s important, it’s the journey.

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

The Unseen Hour

Pleasance Theatre as part of London Horror Festival

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Kill Climate Deniers | ★★★★ | June 2019

It’ll Be Alt-Right On The Night | ★★★★ | September 2019

Midlife Cowboy | ★★★ | September 2019

Anthology | ★★★★★ | October 2019

Murder On The Dance Floor | ★★★ | October 2019

The Accident Did Not Take Place | ★★ | October 2019

The Fetch Wilson | ★★★★ | October 2019

The Hypnotist | ★★½ | October 2019

The Perfect Companion | ★★★★ | October 2019

Children Of The Quorn | ★★★★★ | October 2019

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★★★★

“Ronald and Henty rework and polish this stuff like the master craftsmen they are“

Go To Hell! presented by The Electric Head, is a satirical reworking of Dante’s Inferno. Playing for one night at the Pleasance Theatre in Islington as part of the 2019 London Horror Festival, it attracted a full house of fans who like their terror with a lot of laughs on the side. Billed as a “Live Radio Show,” the stage was set up as a show about to be recorded, with microphones and an impressive sound effects desk. The audience’s enjoyment throughout this entertaining show was genuine and hearty—no need for canned laughter at this event.

Cy Henty and Al Ronald are the writers and creative team behind this feast of fear and fun, and they met, appropriately enough, while filming KillerKiller. Go To Hell! is a script they’ve been working on for several years. In this production, Ronald directs and takes on the role of Dante’s stand in as the naively positive Karloff, whilst Henty takes on a number of roles including the diabolical Scrote. Together with Paul Battin as the Narrator, these three make a terrific team on stage, very ably assisted by the skills of sound and special effects guy Marc Lubienski-Steele.

Henty and Ronald’s version of Dante follows the Italian poet’s path through Hell pretty faithfully, but what sets this version apart from its medieval source, is that Ronald and Henty have reimagined the events in the context of the twentieth first, rather than the fourteenth, century. So they imagine a Britain where the NHS has been privatised, and where those well enough to be discharged from hospital must work in a pharmaceutical corporation to pay off their medical debts. Cue lots of evil laughter from CEO Scrote bent on driving his hapless employees to madness or worse. Ultimately the joke is on him, of course, as Henty’s Karloff finds something good in even the most horrific of situations. He counters Scrote’s vision of corporate servitude with his own vision of a world devoted to love and art. Without giving away the ending, let’s just say that there are a number of hellbent downsides to both visions, and these play out to hilarious effect.

Go To Hell! does not just borrow from Dante, however. It borrows from classic radio shows as well. There are ironic advertisements to begin (shades of Prairie Home Companion), and fans of 70s radio shows will find echoes of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy in Paul Battin’s soothing voice. As the Narrator, Battin provides the same kind of calming contrast as The Hitch-hiker’s character The Book did, and he helps provide context while Ronald and Henty delve deep in the comedic insanity of their own journey. There’s also a trace of Arthur Dent in Henty’s often bewildered (though still positive) Karloff as he encounters each new circle of hell—also renamed and reimagined as the Circle of the Consumer; the Circle of the Commuter, to give just a couple of examples—in the same way that Dent struggles to make sense of each new planet that he encounters in The Hitchhiker’s Guide. Go To Hell! may mine its material from several sources, but they are rich veins of content, and Ronald and Henty rework and polish this stuff like the master craftsmen they are.

Go To Hell! is light years away from The Inferno, but this contemporary mashup captures the twenty-first century zeitgeist perfectly, skewering it with pinpoint accuracy.

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Pleasance Theatre

Reviewed – 24th October 2019

★★★★

“We’ve come to listen to the voices, and any visuals are just comic icing on the cake”

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

The Unseen Hour

Pleasance Theatre as part of London Horror Festival

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Pleasance Theatre

Reviewed – 23rd October 2019

★★★★

“Ronald and Henty rework and polish this stuff like the master craftsmen they are“

Go To Hell! is light years away from The Inferno, but this contemporary mashup captures the twenty-first century zeitgeist perfectly, skewering it with pinpoint accuracy.

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Go to Hell!

Pleasance Theatre as part of London Horror Festival

Previously reviewed at this venue: