For some reason I referred to this play as Dee-men-tos prior to going to see it at the Donmar Warehouse only realising my mistake when the call came to take our seats and it was pronounced 'dimmy-toss' over the tannoy but in hindsight perhaps it was a subliminal premonition because I nearly went demented trying to fathom it out.
On the surface the ideas seem very simple and the character conflicts are given away all too easily but then there are these looong monologues that hint at something more but left me wanting to shout, 'a clue, just one, a hint, anything...'
Written by South African playwright Athol Fugard it is about a former engineer who leaves the city for a remote village with his housekeeper and niece. A former colleague visits to try and persuade him to return.
You never really find out why he left other than he didn't care about the people he worked with any more but I found this argument a bit wanting and in lieu of any further explanation a little lacking in substance.
The visitor stays for five days, hidden feelings are revealed with tragic consequences - one of two really good moments in the play (but I won't spoil it if you are going) and that's the first half leaving you wondering what the second half was going to be about other than feelings of remorse.
Well there is plenty of that and more monologues and throwing around of stuff but little else I could fathom.
The only other excitement of the evening was spotting Christian Cooke who co-starred with Holliday Grainger in ITV's Demons (yes I'm the sap that watched it). The later playing the part of Lydia in the play. At the rather lacklustre curtain call (from the audiences part I felt) Ms Grainger got a special little applause from Mr Cooke when she turned towards his seat up in the circle.
Other reviews:
West End Whingers