How I Learned to Drive
★★★★☆ Difficult
The Royal Scots Club (Venue 241): Mon 12 – Sat 17 Aug 2024
Review by Hugh Simpson
How I Learned to Drive, from Arkle at the Royal Scots Club for the Fringe’s second week, is a challenging piece staged with due care and skill.
Paula Vogel’s play won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 and there is no denying that it is extremely well crafted and serious. It is set in a Maryland family which is beyond dysfunctional in its lack of boundaries or judgement, and where everyone tends to be known by a (usually highly inappropriate and sexually-derived) nickname.
Alan Patterson and Helen Goldie Pic: Rob Shields
Told in a resolutely non-chronological way by a woman known only as Li’l Bit (Helen Goldie), it shows how her aunt’s husband Uncle Peck (Alan Patterson) teaches her to drive, as a pretext for something much darker.
The fractured time scheme means that there is much less authorial judgment than there might be in what is essentially a portrayal of a predatory, alcoholic, child abuser. The writer is obviously manipulating the audience, just as the character manipulates others, but the narrative clearly shows how violence, abuse, damage and trauma are perpetuated. The result is deeply complex and utterly without sensationalism.
finely judged
The metaphor of driving representing freedom is a recognisable one in America; less so here, but it is still understandable. Driving is also used to represent troublesome masculinity, but it is striking how little in the way of metaphor the play actually has. Instead, everything is up on the surface, just as the family’s secrets are pretty much out in the open if anyone cares to face up to them.
This is undoubtedly a very difficult play to stage without either making it unwatchable or trivialising its subject matter. Director Hannah Fitzpatrick has, however, fashioned an extremely lucid production, staged simply and with minimal use of props and scenery. The lighting of Rob Shields and the sound of Craig Robertson add a finely judged atmosphere.
Helen Goldie, Jenna Donoghue, Steven Bradley Croall, Esther Gilvray and Alan Patterson in How I Learned to Drive. Pic: Rob Shields
A ‘Greek Chorus’ feature. More usually, this might be called an ensemble; they do occasionally comment on the action but are generally called upon to play other characters, with most of the narration handled by Li’l Bit herself.
Esther Gilvray, Jenna Donoghue and Steven Bradley Croall are extremely fine in these roles; Gilvray’s parade of bad advice regarding alcohol as Peck schemingly orders martinis and oysters for Li’l Bit is one of the most chillingly absurd moments.
frighteningly immediate and compelling
The play stands and falls on its central performances, however. Goldie’s portrayal of Li’l Bit at all ages from 11 to 55 is frighteningly immediate and compelling. Patterson is every bit as good as someone outwardly sympathetic, but whose failure to face up to how he himself has been damaged has terrible results.
There is the odd moment where the seriousness of the subject matter, or the desire to keep up the accents, makes the cast seem less secure, but these are rare.
This is undoubtedly a challenging experience, but there is no doubting the sincerity of either the intention or the effect.
Running time: One hour and 30 minutes (no interval)
The Royal Scots Club (Hepburn Suite), 29-31 Abercromby Place, EH3 6QE (Venue 241)
Monday 12 – Saturday 17 August 2024
Daily at 8.30 pm
Details and tickets: Book here
Website: https://arkle-theatre.com
Facebook: @Arkle Theatre Company
ENDS
