Badger
★★★☆☆ Overworked
theSpace on The Mile (Venue 39): Sat 3 – Fri 23 Aug 2024
Review by Hugh Simpson
Badger, from Burning Ember Theatre and New Celts at theSpace on the Mile, is a compelling but uneven farcical depiction of workers on the edge of reason.
Ginny is an overworked employee at a heritage property in the countryside, expected to do most of everybody else’s workload while dealing with missing wedding pipers, colleagues who swear at children and key-stealing badgers. She (and her colleagues) seem to be permanently in a state of meltdown, which is perhaps not the look that should be shown to the writer who is doing a piece for the organisation’s members’ magazine.
Erin McGivern in Badger, Pic: Iain Davie.
There is a huge amount of comic energy in Will Evans’s play, with examples of workplace passive-aggressiveness (and old-fashioned aggressive-aggressiveness) that will be horribly recognisable to so many. Much of the storyline speeds along, many lines sparkle with comedy, and there are some non-realistic elements that are beautifully integrated.
So the writing has real promise, and it does a lot of the difficult things right. Unfortunately, it also has weaknesses. Eight characters is just too many for a 70-minute play; there is little time to give them all individuality, so some of them tend towards the stereotype.
careful and effective
When there are two or three people on stage, the interactions are careful and effective; when most or all of them are present, it is just too crowded. The various entrances and exits could be better handled, and the farcical elements do not always come off.
It is clear just which character is closest to Evans’s heart. Ginny is on stage at the beginning and end, and when she is absent the play notably loses energy. Although the character has (understandable) anger issues, Ginny is extremely sympathetic, and done justice by a marvellous performance by Erin McGivern that is expansive in all of the right ways, with frantic energy and wonderful timing.
Badger Pic: Iain Davie.
The trouble is (and this is emphatically not McGivern’s fault) it means that what should be an ensemble play ends up being unbalanced, and suffers when Ginny is off badger-chasing.
Wiktor Wydrzynski plays Elliot, the line manager from Hell, with an oleaginous corporate lack of sincerity, Iain McWilliams has a puppyish vulnerability as put-upon Campbell, and Lee Williamson’s disenchanted Lewis has a cynical believability.
Emily Weston’s form-obsessed Ruby and Nathan Cathcart’s Alastair, always delivering courses in subjects he doesn’t understand, form a sound double act. Sam McMeikan’s Connor has a brash entitlement. Erin Thompson’s magazine writer Ellen is quietly assured; the conversations between Ellen and Ginny, although less fun than much of the rest of the goings-on, are perhaps the most successful moments of the play.
forward momentum
Evans and Ian Dunn direct, and the energy levels are kept high, with the production achieving such a forward momentum that it overcomes many of the problems of the overloaded character list. Finlay Donald’s lighting and sound are impressive; the sound design, in particular, is pitched just right.
There is so much fun to be had here that the problems of the structuring can easily be excused. A tighter play, with half the characters, could have been superb; as it is, it is still impressive, with McGivern’s performance in particular being truly memorable.
Running time: One hour and 10 minutes (no interval)
theSpace on the Mile (Space 3), 80 High St, EH1 1TH (Venue 39)
Saturday 3 – Friday 23 August 2024
Odd dates only: 3.10pm
Details and tickets at: Book here
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Badger. Pic: Iain Davie.
ENDS
