Loved DBC Pierre's book when I read it a couple of years ago as it is a clever and thought provoking black comedy and thoroughly deserving of the accolades it received. So was curious to see how it was translated for the stage in this production at the Young Vic.
The book has many characters and
many locations which must have presented a challenge for the production which ended up with just 10 actors. The stage sets and props were fairly minimal but imaginatively used. There was a lot of movement on stage which built up a level of frenetic energy and tension that goes nicely with the story.
Nadia and I particularly liked the office chairs with steering wheels welded to them which were 'driven' around the stage and want one each for work...
Vernon is played by Colin Morgan who is making his professional debut - not bad for a first role.
The essence of the novel is there and the performances thorough with some real laugh out loud moments and great use of music and song at just the right moment.
However, some of the subtlety is inevitably lost in condensing the story into two and a half hours and the ending was a little rushed with the story somehow resolved all too easily, something I don't remember from the book.
There needs to be some work on the accents which strayed away from southern American drawl to Australian and even British west country occasionally. And it may have been a result of the the accents but the diction at times made it a difficult to understand what some characters were saying.
Overall thoroughly entertaining and worth a hearty applause but not a standing ovation.
Want to go and re-read the book now.