This group of frustrated thespians has been performing in the capital since March 2001, but this was the first time that they had intentionally ventured into the absurd, previously putting on The Importance of Being Earnest, Arsenic and Old Lace and most recently the musical comedy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Now I must admit I had reservations, comedy of the absurd is difficult stuff for both performers and viewers. Ionesco’s play, first performed in 1950, is set in suburban England and studies the erosion of social norms and values, mirrored by a similar disintegration of language, questioning the adequacy of language.

By the end the language has totally deconstructed into babbling, as has the social order, with maids dancing with their masters. The playwright called his work an ‘antiplay’; difficult fare for Hanoi’s under-nine community.

The play started well with three young students performing a clock on a dark stage – tic, toc, tic, toc – which had the three young girls on my left absolutely enthralled. But really after that the play lost its shape.

Some scenes were nicely played, in particular the moment when Mr and Mrs Martin find out that not only do they both come from Manchester, but they shared the same train down to London, live in the same room and even both have a two year old daughter called Alice, and therefore must, in fact be man and wife.

And some of the dance routines, such as the Latin dancing were well choreographed and performed, but all in all these were isolated moments in the uncontrolled madness.

The play itself broke down more into farce than absurdity with any meaning lost beneath the melodrama with actors seemingly competing to out-act each other on the stage.

 

The exceptions were Gael Harrison who under-played Mrs Smith perfectly, allowing the absurdity to come from the drama rather than from her acting, and Daniel Levitt who kept a po-face amid all the ensuing madness.

 

But I craved for greater structure and direction to allow the real absurdity of the work to unfold and unfortunately found myself waiting for the final curtain to drop.

                                                                               

However, the kids around me seemed to love it all, especially all the chickens decorating the small theatre hall. And my small straw-poll of friends was split 50:50 between boring and brilliant.

 

So I am left feeling that maybe Hanoi is ready for the comedy of the absurd, but I doubt whether the Hanoi International Players, whose previous performance of A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was excellent, are ready for it quite yet.

 

Review and photots by Mark Jackson.